--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "L B Shriver" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > > --- In [email protected], Rick Archer > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > on 12/2/05 10:03 PM, authfriend at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Were these women highly educated and established > > > > > in professional society at the time they were > > > > > allegedly victimized by Maharishi? > > > > > > > > Well educated relative to their age at the time. > > > > > > > > >Or is this > > > > > something they achieved after that? > > > > > > > > Yes. > > > > > > So their alleged victimization didn't seem to get > > > in the way of their having successful careers, at > > > any rate. > > > > > > And most victims of incest, by the way, are young > > > girls, not adult women. > > > > ******** > > > > Your mastery of context could be slipping. Cult > > members generally are in a relationship in which > > the leader or guru is in the parental role, and > > usually a perverted parental role at that. > > I'm not sure what you think this has to do with > what I've been saying, L.B., or why you think my > "mastery of context" could be slipping. Care to > elaborate? > > As I've already indicated, I have no problem with > the concept of the leader/guru taking a parental > role. That was never what I objected to. > > Perhaps you should do a little checking of the > context yourself. > @@@@@@@@
Here is the context: > > > And most victims of incest, by the way, are young > > > girls, not adult women. True enough, except that the "incest" we have been discussing in this thread is the variety known as "spiritual incest" (a term which you have argued against previously in this thread, if I recall correctly). If I may be permitted a small digression: the term "spiritual incest" cannot be correctly understood by exactly parsing its constituents. It has a special meaning which applies most clearly in the cult context. You have argued against its application here based on your parsing, including the argument quoted above regarding the ages of the victims. Spiritual incest is a special kind of sexual abuse that takes place in institutional and/or cult settings (Catholic Church, TMO). It is similar to the kind of abuse that takes place in, for example, university settings where faculty take sexual advantage of students, or for that matter, prison settings where guards take advantage of inmates. The "spiritual" aspect of the term signifies the religious or cult setting. All such abuses have in common an asymetric power relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. This is why they are all considered unethical/immoral, and why laws exist to protect those in the weaker position. In the religious/spiritual/cult setting, the perpetrator often has more power over the victim than the "traditional" incest perpetrator. A guru, for example, is often believed to be: enlightened spiritually perfect divine (avatar, incarnation of God, etc) all powerful (master of sidhis, etc) in addition to which, he/she may be fulfilling a parental role that the victim may not even be consciously aware of. Another small digression: Many people have commented in this forum that they think MMY's alleged infractions amount to "no big deal". However, for the reasons I have referred to above, such abuses are universally condemned in civil society. This is the context in which our discussion is relevant. Your point about the ages of the victims applies to "ordinary" incest, not the variety we are dealing with here. L B S ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
