07-06-2010, 04:54 AM
We have our own madrassas. They are found in the prep schools, the small military academies, some social clubs, small communities, living rooms, church basements, and more. A child is spotted, evaluated, given a hidden check on a form or a wink between people, and the child is slowly, gradually, culled from the herd, tested, given an assignment to see how respondent and obedient they will be. Sometimes more nefarious methods are used but sometimes they don't have to be at the early levels; identification of tendency and talent, eagerness and obedience, is all. The identified candidate is eased forward with recommendations, doors that have been opened by colleagues, scholarship assistance, special guidance and tutoring, etc. into the next-highest level of testing and observation. The faltering or conscience-stricken candidate is simply eased out of the narrowing stream; the whistle-blower is given a black mark and prevented from furtherance in career and employment and educational opportunity. It is simple, subtle, woven seamlessly into the system; some select for one set of attributes, and others for more human ones. One very simple and introductory example:
When started on an initiatory and screening exercise which was an overnight forced-march 20-mile hike as a candidate for the elite college ROTC group that eventually might have out me in 'nam under a Green Beret, I and my buddies were each issued a live, clucking chicken. We were told to tie its feet and hang it upside down from a pole we carried on our shoulders for the first ten miles. We'd been issued rusty, dull bayonets for our blanks-loaded M-1 rifles. When our lunch break was finally ordered (we'd d been issued no food and prevented from bringing anything other than the water in our canteen), we were told to build a fire. The instructors simply pointed to the chickens and said "If you want to eat, there is your lunch."
Another example later in the year featured one-on-one pugil stick combat in which we were pitted against the individual they had determined we were closest to in terms of friendship; the contest was to the end, with one flat on the ground.
There are always simple and hidden tests to determine what is inside a human being and how far they will go.
Another was the SERE-based training in survival swimming, the hand-to-hand combat classes, and the "maneuvers" in which some degree of ruthlessness is injected into the game play.
The more famous example is the Stanford psych experiments...
My examples were from light and lower level events for college students in a protected and observable environment. More harsh stories, I'm, sure, emerge from real military training and real combat experience.
When started on an initiatory and screening exercise which was an overnight forced-march 20-mile hike as a candidate for the elite college ROTC group that eventually might have out me in 'nam under a Green Beret, I and my buddies were each issued a live, clucking chicken. We were told to tie its feet and hang it upside down from a pole we carried on our shoulders for the first ten miles. We'd been issued rusty, dull bayonets for our blanks-loaded M-1 rifles. When our lunch break was finally ordered (we'd d been issued no food and prevented from bringing anything other than the water in our canteen), we were told to build a fire. The instructors simply pointed to the chickens and said "If you want to eat, there is your lunch."
Another example later in the year featured one-on-one pugil stick combat in which we were pitted against the individual they had determined we were closest to in terms of friendship; the contest was to the end, with one flat on the ground.
There are always simple and hidden tests to determine what is inside a human being and how far they will go.
Another was the SERE-based training in survival swimming, the hand-to-hand combat classes, and the "maneuvers" in which some degree of ruthlessness is injected into the game play.
The more famous example is the Stanford psych experiments...
My examples were from light and lower level events for college students in a protected and observable environment. More harsh stories, I'm, sure, emerge from real military training and real combat experience.
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"