Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - kilgore

Pages: [1]
1
News Items / CBC documentary on AARC
« on: December 24, 2002, 01:25:00 AM »
If you didn't know, David Suzuki's (to all appearances glowing) report on AARC will be aired January 2 at 9pm eastern.

http://cbc.ca/natureofthings/krystal.html

non-Canucks: Suzuki is a scientist and broadcaster with a long-running and highly acclaimed program called 'The Nature of Things', as well as an environmentalist and all-purpose liberal public intellectual.  Sadly, in official Canadian politics being a cantankerous green isn't incompatible with the most dunderheaded 'tough love' approach to sociology...here's the show's precis: '[the program] will document a radical new approach to curing drug addiction in teens. An approach that sets out to treat the family as much as the teen.'

I would expect a "hard science married with soft science equals effective treatment" sort of storyline; the chemists and the kind n' gentle family theorists working together in 'holistic' terms.  not sure if they'll downplay the debt AARC owes to religious lunacy (as against Suzuki's hard-science, rationalist background), or the sinister ideology of AA and the pseudo-Fascist Oxford Group it sprung from; more likely is some skeptical massaging of the degree, rather than kind, of thought control and coercion practiced at AARC.

From the page linked above you can access an online discussion forum which would be a good way to tell another side of the AARC story.

Alternatively, email the show at tnot@toronto.cbc.ca or phone them via CBC Audience Relations, (416) 205-3700.

Who knows: this will be a huge audience of people from all over the country, many of whom will be inclined to view radical Albertan/American interventions into the health care system with real suspicion.  It could be a great awareness booster.

Muster!

2
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / AARC
« on: August 28, 2002, 04:32:00 PM »
Many thanks everyone for your messages.  Yes, that really is my Dad, and yes, he was pretty upset about this website.  But I think he'll take what you say seriously -- so please, be as honest as you feel you can be.

I should quickly clear up a few things.  I guess I was a bit overheated at the time of my first post -- my Dad correctly points out that my bro has been in AARC for about 6, not 8 months. He also says that my brother wasn't forcibly restrained when he entered, but I've got conflicting reports on that one.
In any case, that's me above board.

I'm glad some of you took up his offer, as I believe he's committed to the stance, if not the reality, of being open-minded here. Of course the least productive thing possible would be that two sides just accuse each other of being brainwashed in different ways -- my Dad basically seems to think that having been "druggies" utterly compromises former program participants' capacity to approach this stuff objectively, while I increasingly feel that with him I'm arguing more with an ideology rather than with a person.

Anyway, all that's supposed to encourage is more of the generous honesty you've already displayed.  It's appreciated, by me at least, and it might make a difference yet.

Thanks again.

Scott

3
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / help me - brother in AARC
« on: August 15, 2002, 05:43:00 PM »
Many thanks for your message, Velvet.  It means a lot to know I'm not just being bloody-minded about this. (Or, perhaps, that I'm not alone in being bloody-minded about this...)  I'll see how far I get with the civil liberties resource people.  And a friend of mine is studying law, so I'll see if he knows where to start with that side of things.

But I confess it's hard to see myself doing much in the way of "intervention" -- Antigen was right: when I think about it, this is definitely heading toward a big crucible where I'm either "with" or "against" my family, at least in their eyes.  They really do view me as some kind of heretic -- even to *question* the teachings of "Dr" Vause is suddenly dangerous and perverse.  (Any dirt on that doctorate, by the way? They're apparently quite impressed with the trappings of authority.)

The more I harp on at them -- and I can't be more than a nag, from across the Atlantic -- the more they're convinced I'm just being difficult, "not open minded", etc.  They really can't grasp that I object in principle, that I won't be "brought around" by talking to "graduates", etc.  The worst part is that I can only respond by analyzing their arguments, pointing out the flaws in their reasoning, etc, - which makes me a cold-hearted intellectual quibbler, more concerned with dissecting what was a very difficult, but necessary decision than I am with my bro's welfare.  Sound familiar to anyone?  The argument runs along very predictable lines now, so I feel like the more I press them, the more deeply entrenched their new-found faith becomes.

So how do I get out of that circle?

4
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / help me - brother in AARC
« on: August 14, 2002, 07:57:00 AM »
Hi,

My younger brother was forced into AARC about 8 months ago.  My parents basically kidnapped him, got AARC volunteers to restrain him physically as they carried him inside, and signed him over.  (As far as I understand: I was overseas at the time, as I am now.)  Apparently my brother later capitulated and signed something assenting to being held there.

He and the rest of my family are now full-fledged members of the cult, and no amount of evidence or argument will convince my parents that they're simply replacing his (supposed) chemical dependency with absolute obedience to the AARC priesthood.  They even agree that he's essentially being brainwashed -- but AARC have now got them so well indoctrinated that they fervently believe they "saved" my brother from imminent suicide; better a drone than dead, is basically their position.

I can't even send my brother mail without it being censored.  Is that even legal?

The reason I ask is that nothing short of legal intervention is going to get my brother out of there -- does anyone know of ANYTHING that can be done in this situation?  Doesn't what happened to AARC violate my brother's Charter-guaranteed freedoms of liberty and conscience?  Does anyone have any experience in this area?  I'm at the end of my tether.  Thanks for reading.

Pages: [1]