"No matter how mentally ill they are, or how much worse me encouraging them to become even more mentally ill affects them."
That, sadly, is the everyday reality of the curious phenomenon we call the Internet. The emergence of what many psychologists and sociologists are calling "pathological cliques" has taken its toll. An incident that happened in New Mexico when I lived there should help to illustrate the problem. On one chat forum, a former mental patient released because New Mexico cut its funds to state-supported mental facilities and had to cut him loose and say nothint in parting but "Good luck" logged on to the forum and was instantly recruited by one of the reigning cliques on that forum. They encouraged him to join them in dumping on one of their "common enemies," a woman who was outspoken about the degree of sexism and racism (she was Hispanic) she saw on the forum. He promptly did so, and was *rewarded* by the members of the clique with "strokes" and compliments. Every time he'd join them in dissing the woman, they would compliment him and tell him how intelligent and insightful he was. He took this "stroking" so seriously that he took to stalking the woman in question. He finally raped her brutally, and was sent to prison. Not *one* of the members of the pathological clique in question took any responsibility for his actions, or acknowledged their role in them. They responded with a chorus of "We never noticed that there was anything wrong with him. He seemed *normal* to us." WHY he "seemed normal" was that he *joined them* in their online harassment and persecution of the woman in question. It was more important to them to "get" the woman they collectively disliked than to notice that he was in a fragile mental state, and in need of *help* in dealing with his psychological problems, not in acting them out. Does any of this sound *familiar* to Fairfield Life members? This shit is dangerous, people. You're messing with fragile and unbalanced personalities, and attempting to *use* them to either exact "retribution" for grudges you've been carrying for years, or to support fantasy ideas about enlightenment or the spiritual process you've been clinging to for years. I'm calling bullshit. I don't think you give a shit about ANY of these people you recruit. I don't even think you're perceptive enough to see who they really are, or compassionate enough to care. All you care about are your petty grudges and vendettas and attachments to spiritual dogma, and you see these people only as resources to be used and then thrown away like Kleenex.
