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corboyYears ago, Umberto Eco wrote an essay on the basic structure of fascism. For fun you can look at it and see whether there are any similiarities to what you saw for yourselves in SGI. Uts consists of 14 checkpoints.
Here is # 9 -- sound familiar?
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9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.
Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such "final solutions" implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament.
[
www.themodernword.com]
Even as a high school kid, I always made jokes about the fascistic quality of the N$A cult org.. It was always a running joke between a few of us (all three of us have long since departed the cult org.) who often sat together. Whenever the audience at large venues would yell out "
HAI!" in mass together, we would glance at each other, kind of giggle and then, under our breath, one of us would then murmur "
Sieg Heil." It was our way of insulating ourselves from the discomfort that we often felt in cult org. mass meetings.
Number 7 really hits home for me:
"
7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country.This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the United States, a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson's The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others."
The cult org. really played this one to the hilt with so-called "fortune babies" (children born into the practice). They tried to brainwash into you that you were uber-special, your calling for Cousin Rufus a mystical bond and karmic connection. You had to hand the core of your identity and existence over to the gakkai cult - devote your life in service to it. To be born into the gakkai cult, was an extreme honor and an even more extreme responsibility. So they said, and tried to implant into your head.
What a simplistic, ignorant, manipulative and utterly evil way to get young and innocent people to think.
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TaitenAndProud
I remember back when group meetings were closed with singing "Forever Sensei" *eye roll* I remember putting my arms around other YWD/YMD (most all of us in our 20s, of course - "young" can certainly go all the way up to 50, don't you think?) and pulling each other back and forth to the point that we almost fell to the ground laughing. REAL mature, right?
I absolutely despised that "arm in arm" manic swaying back and forth stuff. I was protected from having to do it too much, because I was in the brass band
playing the song. I can
still tell you the words and play it. (Yikes!)
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TaitenAndProud
Now, though, since you brought it up, I can't get "Forever Sensei" out of my mind. There's a reason that so many religions include songs - it's a way of getting their message stuck in your brain. Like an advertising jingle! You remember those long after you've completely forgotten the print ads. That's the point - it's a memory thing. I can still remember the Christian hymns I was raised with. And at Christmas time, I still get a special feeling when I hear certain Christmas carols, like "O Holy Night" and "Come All Ye Faithful". I never played them at home, though, so my children do not associate Christian songs with Christmas.
This goes back to some of the positives of religion and what I was saying about religion and art. Christmas songs of faith, gospel music and paintings (e.g., da Vinci, The Vatican). I can enjoy and appreciate it all, while at the same time, separate all the baggage that doesn't necessarily have to go with it.
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TaitenAndProud
lol - I threw in that last bit just for hilarity. Of course, by this time, we were no longer closing meetings by singing President Ikeda's praises, but that hypocrisy would have been delicious, don't you think? Who doesn't like a powerful dose of irony??
What the hell is "San-dan-kai-yay", anyhow???
Za -dan- Ka- i(iiiii), HEY! (Zadankai).
The "world-peace" loving pseudo-buddhist cult is chalk full of irony everywhere you turn. Here are some more classic gakkai cult org. songs from the US:
(To the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy")
"We are Shakubuku dandies.
"Shakubuku do or die!"
Real life Bodhisattvas of the Earth,
keeping our life forces high.
Chanting lots of strong Daimoku
keeps us going day and night.
If you want to change your life
and overcome your karma,
then get your Gohonzon today."(To the tune of "I've been working on the Railroad")
"I've been doing Shakubuku,
all the live long day.
I've been chanting Daimoku,
to get me on my way.
The eyes of the world are upon us,
and we shall never stray.
Can't you hear the members calling?
There's happiness on the way."And the best of all, "The Shakubuku Fight Song."
"Shakubuku early in the morning.
Shakubuku late at night.
Shakubuku when the sky is storming.
Shakubuku when the sun shines bright.
Shakubuku is the way to Kosen-rufu.
In twenty years, we'll see Kosen-rufu.
Keep chanting!
Keep chanting!
We've got just twenty years to go.
Do your Gongyo early in the morning.
Daimoku late at night.
Going to follow President Ikeda,
Make this planet peaceful and bright.
Shakubuku is the way to Kosen-rufu.
In twenty years, we'll see Kosen-rufu.
Keep chanting!
Keep chanting!
We've got just twenty years to go."Well, the 20 years has come and gone (twice) and they are still waiting for Cousin Rufus. Let the manipulation continue.
- Hitch