Corps Program: "Mission Creep"

[Thomas Loy Bumgarner]

Yeah....read it in black and white in my youth and it didn't seem quite right.

Years later.....when I saw his misogyny IN LIVING COLOR, a depiction I'll never forget.

VPW as the creeper vs. Scooby Doo and the gang. "And I would have gotten away with it if you meddling kids at GSC hadn't interfered"

[justloafing]

Good post, Um...I'm one of those posters - from the 2nd Corps. Don't kid yourself. Those were dark days, too, albeit w/out LCM screaming. VPW's methods of indoctrination clothed in the "father in the Word" persona were perhaps subtle at times compared with LCM but just as or more insidious...and predatory.

Yep VP may have been a little more subtle but at look at what his methods created................LCM

[excathedra]

vpw, "The Way:Living in Love", pg-199

"WOMEN NEVER TELL THE TRUTH."

vpw, same book, pg-200 (Speaking of JE Stiles and Mrs Stiles)

"She said something

to him like, 'How long will you be?' And he said,

'That's none of your business.'

That was it, and my opinion of him as a man went up 99 percent.

His stature increased in my eyes. just from the way he handled her."

holy crap i remember that now and i think there might have been some stuff like that in the pfal and other classes

what a jackas loser

he disgusts me and did back then but i was stupid or worse

i had a hard time buying into craig because i felt like he should know better and change himself and not do the sex stuff, but when i suggested that to him he went crazy

and i left before he went totally mad

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/11/2011 at 9:00 PM, waysider said:

"Mission Creep"

Isn't that what it said on wierwille's name tag?

Way, I believe you are right.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 8:35 AM, OperaBuff said:

Well put! I'd just point out that the term "mission creep" has been around for decades. From my years in the military and a career as a Defense Department civilian, mission creep not only describes the inevitable lurching forward that results from an insufficiently defined military mission. It's equally applicable to the expansion and functions of a bureaucracy.

Having left the Way in the 70s, I missed the so-called fog years and all the un-Godly horrors that followed. But looking at all that from the outside, with eyes that gained considerable insight into the workings of bureaucracies during my career, it is obvious to me that the Way's bureaucracy was dysfunctional in the extreme, incestuous, and beyond the influence of whatever few rational thinkers that may have been around it. There was no proper functioning, there was only disfunction.

To this day, I believe that most of the seemingly inexplicable decisions of its top leaders was due to sexual blackmail. There ain't nothing spiritual about good old-fashioned blackmail, but it is highly effective. Being blackmailed frequently explains why someone makes sudden, weird, contradictory decisions which, ultimately, are self-destructive.

OB, wow!  I think you might be right. Perhaps some of the top dogs in TWI were blackmailed; that would explain why some of them made such horrible decisions.  Or, perhaps some of them didn't use their brains.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 9:13 AM, penworks said:

Good post, Um...I'm one of those posters - from the 2nd Corps. Don't kid yourself. Those were dark days, too, albeit w/out LCM screaming. VPW's methods of indoctrination clothed in the "father in the Word" persona were perhaps subtle at times compared with LCM but just as or more insidious...and predatory.

Although VP "sort of" defined his program with the 5 Corps principles (although they were very general and open to all sorts of interpretation), he sprang those on us AFTER we were in residence. One girl told me she thought we were just there for 2 years to learn stuff, then go home. Nope. We got roped into a "lifetime" deal, which some of us have rejected to varying degrees. Sadly, the girl I mentioned above is currently roped into a TWI offshoot. That's how powerful the indoctrination was on her, at least...

Anyhow, that's my 2 cents.

Charlene

Penworks, I didn't know this; thanks for the information.  

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 9:30 AM, geisha779 said:

Maybe that is why you see a marked difference in people depending on the time frame. VP was insidious....but subtle, yet he still attracted good people with his "father in the word" schtick.On the surface it probably appeared pretty loving?

What kind of people are attracted to yelling, screaming, vulgarity, and extreme arrogance? Moreover, what kind of people tolerate it, adapt, and then adopt it for themselves?

Different kinds of people...and far different times too. Just a thought.

779, I think you are a Sharp Cookie!

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 9:35 AM, So_crates said:

Usually broken people trying to escape abusive situations. The bitter irony is while trying to escape, they traded one abuser for another.

SoCrates

Socrates, I think you are right, unfortunately.  I think a lot of us in TWI were broken, and looking for the love we never received as kids.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 3:25 PM, So_crates said:

Don't you think your insulting alphas?

Saint Vic wasn't an alpha, he was a beta masquerading as an alpha. An alpha wannabe, if you will.

A true alpha doesn't have to get power, he has it. A true alpha doesn't have to prove his alpha-ness, everybody knows its there.

Ditto Craigmeister.

SoCrates

Socrates, 

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/13/2011 at 11:04 AM, Thomas Loy Bumgarner said:

VPW as the creeper vs. Scooby Doo and the gang. "And I would have gotten away with it if you meddling kids at GSC hadn't interfered"

Thomas; great post!!!!

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/11/2011 at 8:53 PM, T-Bone said:

very thoughtful post, Skyrider - thanks!

flip flopping "mission creep" might work another way too - - - creep mission = the goal of a repulsive cult leader

T-Bone, that also works.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/11/2011 at 9:00 PM, waysider said:

"Mission Creep"

Isn't that what it said on wierwille's name tag?

Way, I believe it was.

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 0:23 AM, Broken Arrow said:

I have to disagree. Well, I dont have to I suppose, but I do. "Mission Creep", if I'm understanding things correctly, implies that at one time there was a well-defined, needfull, and well carried out mission. I don't think such a thing existed in TWI.

BA, good point!

[Grace Valerie Claire]

On 4/12/2011 at 8:35 AM, OperaBuff said:

Well put! I'd just point out that the term "mission creep" has been around for decades. From my years in the military and a career as a Defense Department civilian, mission creep not only describes the inevitable lurching forward that results from an insufficiently defined military mission. It's equally applicable to the expansion and functions of a bureaucracy.

Having left the Way in the 70s, I missed the so-called fog years and all the un-Godly horrors that followed. But looking at all that from the outside, with eyes that gained considerable insight into the workings of bureaucracies during my career, it is obvious to me that the Way's bureaucracy was dysfunctional in the extreme, incestuous, and beyond the influence of whatever few rational thinkers that may have been around it. There was no proper functioning, there was only disfunction.

To this day, I believe that most of the seemingly inexplicable decisions of its top leaders was due to sexual blackmail. There ain't nothing spiritual about good old-fashioned blackmail, but it is highly effective. Being blackmailed frequently explains why someone makes sudden, weird, contradictory decisions which, ultimately, are self-destructive.

OB, you might be right!