Barry's apologetics for his negative spin on the pandit program involve making a distinction between legal freedom and psychological freedom. While the distinction is valid on its own terms, the case that while the pandits are legally free to make their own decisions, they aren't psychologically free to do so, is hardly cut-and-dried. Essentially, it requires reading the minds of the pandits based on what one knows--or simply infers--about their situation prior to coming to this country and about the nature of family relations in India.
The degree of the pandits' psychological freedom may well be a significant issue that warrants discussion, but it is by no means a slam-dunk to assume they lack it. And even if it could be determined, whether and how it should affect the program--should such a lack trump their legal freedom?--is another issue entirely. Bottom line, Barry's conjectures about the psychological freedom of the pandits should not be taken to constitute proof that they are being unfairly exploited by the TMO. Barry's knowledge of the pandits' situation before signing on to the U.S. part of the program is rudimentary at best, and his knowledge of their current psychological state is nonexistent. He can't legitimately accuse Lawson of "ignoring" what he himself is only guessing at. Again, the psychological freedom issue does warrant discussion, but the ability to come to a hard-and-fast, evidence-based conclusion about what it means, or should mean, for the pandit program may not be within our grasp. Just following up on your apologetics, Lawson, if you persist in saying that the 20+ year old pandits in America are free to make their own legal decisions, I suggest that you are ignoring two important issues: 1. Many of them have been "in the program" and behind barbed wire since they were minors as young as 8, and thus incapable of making any legal decisions about whether they want to be there or not. Yes, they had to be at least 20 to sign the TMO slave contracts for the US, but they were too young to legally agree before that. After having been indoctrinated in TM compounds for ten years or more, it's understandable that many of them can no longer imagine any other life, and thus signed whatever was put in front of them for the prospect of a few more rupees and a few more bowls of curry per day. 2. You completely ignore the influence of family on these poor guys. I've worked with many Indian programmers over the years, and have seen at least two dozen of them *forced* by their parents to return to India and marry some woman they'd never met. Yes, "arranged marriages" are still the norm. When asked by me WHY they'd submit to this, they all replied the same: "Family." Their families would disown them if they ever did something they weren't told to do, which in India carries as much of a social stigma as it does in Japan. The pandit boys are *trapped* in their positions, unable to leave them because to do so would make them social outcasts for the rest of their lives. Now back to the money. You've talked about how much John Hagelin makes to be a shill for the TM movement. How much do YOU make to "argue on the Internet" incessantly and be pretty much a full-time apologist for the TM movement? Doesn't it ever occur to you that you're as brainwashed as the pandit boys? From: TurquoiseBee <turquoiseb@...> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 7:27 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role Meanwhile you're still lying about the pandits, and pretending that they get paid $200 per month. They do not. They get paid $50 a month, with the other $150 going to the parents who sold them into this program in the first place. They never see a penny of it. Therefore they are paid $1.66 per day, not $6.60 as you claim. Meanwhile, by your own figures below, John Hagelin is paid $438 per day. From: "LEnglish5@..." <LEnglish5@...> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 7:16 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: A Hurt Community, Bevan Morris Role John Haglein is now "Raja" John Hagelin, in charge of the TMO for North America. I was arguing with someone in reddit.com about TM finances and looked at the IRS form 990 records for various TM-related organizations. John is paid $37,000 as President of the DLF. He gets another $36,000 for Global Country of World Peace activities. He gets $87,000 as Trustee and director of the Insitute for Science, etchnology and public policy at MUM. By far, he's the highest-paid TMer in North America. I haven't looked into what he is paid or not as Raja -usually that is a non-compensated position, as you have to pay (or get someone to pay for you) $1 million for the post. L
