'I imagine someone who has been told they only have months to live could behave in an irrational manner.'

But he has always behaved in an irrational manner--- so whether or not he is on the way out cannot be deduced from his current irrational behaviour.

I take your point Stoic but a lot of Dave's recent behaviour has been completely out of character.

1. He finally decides to post on one of the ''hate'' sites after all these years.

2. He tried to arrange a counselling session with his son.

3. He bans his victims/followers from posting on his forum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2011 01:47AM by Apollo.

Quote
Malcolm Wesley WREST
Yes it was on the Wikipage....(so it's someone else's "theory", of course)....I'd love to know who contributed that little tidbit!

If I remember correctly it was RecentlyDeported/Glen who brought it to my attention.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2011 04:16AM by Apollo.

Kate & Nick,

I've just watched ''Ash's Anatomy''.

You deserve a huge amount of credit for the way you carried yourselves throughout the show. I have a great deal of respect for the both of you. I'm not sure I could have handled it in such a Christlike fashion if it was my child.

It was clear that Ash was under a great deal of control and had been coerced into donating. I was also deeply disturbed to see how malnourished he looked.

It is absolutely appalling what McKay put your family through.

I understand Ash has now left the cult and what a relief that must have been for the whole family. Hopefully you are now able to enjoy far more productive communication with your son.

Just like Joe Johnson i'm sure Ash joined the group with the best of intentions. He too was targetted at an extremely young and impressionable age. It's sad to see how McKay uses the bible to manipulate these youngsters and before you know it they're turned into anti-social, angry, bitter and paranoid McKay clones.

I've remarked previously that I think those who manage to retain any nature of personal idealism, manage to "survive" their experiences with McKay,
the scripture in Romans, that "all things work to the good of those who believe in Christ Jesus", describing in a round about fashion, the process of recovery...

Ash has a number of ideals.....hence he emerged "alive"!

(...have I failed to "press" all the right buttons here?)

An earlier comment, that I had intended to make.....was that, in support of Apollo's contention that McKay is dying, it would appear that the "Cruise" itself could possibly serve as an subtle indication of McKay's anticipation of his own mortality, for whatever reason... a "holiday splurge" the like of which he has never engaged in, in earlier times(money and resources being strictly devoted to selling his works, his message and himself)....

.....but a "once-in-a-lifetime" vacation....that would make sense were a certain someone to be aware that they do not have much "lifetime" left....

(I here acknowledge, that the planning for the cruise took place months beforehand, and was also, transparently meant to rub McKays "success" in the face of his critics, left to "glumly rue" the invitations that they never received from the "great man".....)

I sincerely hope you're right Mal, I really do.

I still can't believe he blew 30k+ on a cruise. After everything he preaches he then goes and blows all that money on what was basically a ''holiday''.

When people are faced with the realisation that they may not have long to live then quite often they will hope to achieve some of their dreams. Thanks to Blackhat who so beautifully pointed it out, we know that one of McKay's lifelong dreams was to go on a cruise. This is something which he often dreamed about and I guess he saw an opportunity which meant his dream could become a reality, at the expense of the Johnson's.

[jcs.xjcs.org]

Quote
Dave
But there were two other people on whom you laid TWENTY-FIVE lashes. Did that have any effect on you? I may be misremembering, but I think you once said that you rejoiced at having had the privilege of whipping me. I guess the same must go for you having whipped Jeremy, is that right? I'm saying this, Jose, because, even though it would be nice to think that you really were speaking from some high moral ground that eschews the horrible violence that the trial now supposedly represents in your mind (although all four of us, Cherry and Joe included, were celebrating... WITH YOU... a couple of hours after the staged trial, remember?) the fact that you claim to have actually ENJOYED the attack on myself suggests that you may still be having some subtle difficulties in the areas of hatred and violence that you are so prone to accuse us of.

What on earth were they celebrating?

Shared violence, or a communal violent display is often experienced as a bonding ritual. There is usually a scapegoat 'outsider' on the receiving end but in the JC's case that 'outsider' (anyone who opposes McKay--the Johnsons in this example) was symbolically represented by the volunteers.

I think that the use of symbolic representations in this instance serves to underline the closed and insular nature of what was going on here. The JC's could not engage in real interaction with the Johnsons as that might lead to an outcome over which they had no control. By keeping this on a symbolic plane, reality is kept at bay and the outcome is whatever Davejc interprets it as, in this case vindication of any guilt for their previous actions in seducing Joe away from his family and victory over the Johnsons.
They were supposed to feel uplifted and celebrating a successful symbolic victory over their opponents.

Jose later having doubts and interpreting the outcome in his own more honest (for himself, at least) way, not the Davejc directed way, (and more importantly openly expressing those doubts and different interpretation to others) threatens to undermine the collective view that Davejc has decided upon.
Davejc then has to turn that around and repair any possible damage to the collective view by making it exclusively Jose's personal problem--- Jose becomes the scapegoat 'outsider':

'you may still be having some subtle difficulties in the areas of hatred and violence that you are so prone to accuse us of.'



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2011 02:33PM by Stoic.