I always told the new guys to fight the “us vs them” mentality that can creep into their lives.

I agree! I’m sure my friends in law enforcement have struggled to maintain an objective attitude and are succeeding as far as I can tell. I don’t believe I could do their job and I’m grateful for their service.

Respect is a two way street. I encourage others to take the time to thank a Law Officer whenever they can.

Actually I am taking meds and therapy. I have thought of trying to find a caregivers support group. Also hospice care, whenever we are ready for it will provide some more resources for the caregivers. Including~ get this~ pet therapy visits.
My mom is doing well right now and I just am going to soak it up like the sunshine for as long as it lasts.
I’m sorry your brother died, too Daisy. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I don’t know how anyone else should feel and I don’t doubt you sincerity.

I said before that different people, when placed under pressure to conform to the demand of an evil situation react differently. Some resist, and try to make the best of a bad job. Others embrace the opportunity for power over others.

TC is one of the second kind by default, because he has no character of his own.

He has spent his career and his life going along with what he is told by advisors with the purpose of advancing himself. All he has had to do to achieve this is to assume roles that have been written for him.

Scientology is just more of the same. People tell him what he needs to do in order to become ‘superhuman’ (and incidentally assuage his insecurity) and he goes along with it. The ‘respect’ he receives from the CofS proves to his satisfaction that it is working.

He has never in his life had to think anything through or consider the consequences his behaviour might have for others – he pays people to do that.

I would say that he always has been a monumentally superficial man who thinks he is something special and, as long his fans and his yes men preserve that delusion he is blissfully unaware that there is anything wrong with his behaviour or that of his ‘Church’.

first off, once born, i want to thank you very much for responding to me and doing so with long detailed and intelligent responses.. i want you to also know i’m not trying to be argumentative or combative with you in my response. it’s all about me trying to know what the truth is and why? in regards to cruise. I try and i try to understand how and why he got in and stays in that makes any sense never mind him having to KNOW the evil that is going on and he remains blind, deaf and dumb to it, or more like to everyone who HAS experienced the evil……
i still stand behind my “catholic analogy” in regards to him….
and i still stand behind my own personal belief that I would not be persuaded to be a entirely different person without a shred of empathy, courage,integrity and decency to know and allow such evil by my “religion”… i’ve always said and everyone that knows me knows this, that if i won hundreds of millions of dollars (kind of a analogy perhaps a poor one) and bey being that wealthy, i would enter a different world that i would NEVER be the type to buy 5 houses and 20 cars and what not.. and anyone who says “oh, you say that not” DOES NOT KNOW ME…. heck,i would give most of it away to charities…

at the end of the day, obviously cruise is NO ONE deserving of any respect much less admiration or adoration whether as a successful movie star or more importantly as a man.. is he deserving of empathy? understanding? hope? is he STILL a quote “victim”? or by now and for some time now a complicit guilty by association WILLING participant worthy and guilty of “going down with the ship” and not in a good way, perhaps even to the point of illegality and duplicity?.. how should i or anyone feel about him?.. does my boycott of his movies and every other scientologist’s work mean anything?..

That’s valid – but neither you nor I are him. He seems to have been particularly vulnerable to Scientologys pitch for personal, as well as environmental reasons.

For me, it goes without saying that Scientology’s doctrines and practices are nonsensical and, designed as they are to get money and exercise absolute power over others, tend to make people do evil things.

I also have to observe that you don’t have to go back very far to find a time when the Catholic Church burned people at the stake for disagreeing with them on points of doctrine.

I want (need?) to understand how this happens – and there is a large social component. Outsiders all like to think that they would not be deceived by anything similar, or if put in that position, would not behave badly.

Actual experiments demonstrate that such people are very much the exception rather than the rule (notably https://scicrit.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/understanding-the-scientology-mindset-pt-3-obedience-to-authority/ and https://scicrit.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/understanding-the-scientology-mindset-part-4-power-corrupts-the-stanford-prison-experiment/ . It seems to me that we should be careful about asserting that we would be in that small minority unless we have been tested by experience and not complied.

There are undoubtedly levels of complicity. Some Scientologists (like some of the guards in the Stanford experiment) do their best to make an evil situation more tolerable. At the other extreme, some embrace the exercise of power and, as Hubbard did, revel in casual cruelty.

It’s difficult to place TC on this continuum. As their prize celeb, he’s in the unique position of having almost as much power and as little responsibility as Miscavige himself.

He is probably complicit. However, I’m not interested in judging others as understanding how this kind of bubble forms, how it can deceive good, capable, people into going evil things and how to burst it.

When Scientology collapses, people will have to deal with the consequences of what they have done. For some, this will only be a matter for their own consciences. For others, the courts may become involved, and their judgements will be fascinating and important. However, that’s all for another day.

For now, for me, it’s “know thine enemy”, which is a social institution called ‘The Church of Scientology’ now, typically, the people who have become trapped within it.

You need a masseuse, an adjustment, time off and vacay f5 for breathing moment

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59f398d0d8297f552d4c6e476d6287ebb28000778920e4c867a03f0e73718a7a.jpg

he was born and raised and a practicing catholic (as i was but i no longer practice it) for 24/25 years before he got involved in this insidious thing… once he became super famous and powerful and got involved in scientology he forgot EVERYTHING of inherent decency , moralityand integrity?

thought then and now 30 years later that his ROYAL unbelievable ass kissing by his “religion” or like i said ANY religion/church/faith is not only quote “normal” but proper and even more importantly deserved? if he never got involved in this cult and remained a practicing catholic and one of the most famous catholics in the world because of his fame and success would he think that the pope hanging out with him doing all kinds of non religious activities, having the pope furnish his household staff, giving him catholic “handlers” who surround him constantly in and out of his home (just that is so weird and bizarre that he thinks scientology handlers are a good thing? handlers? from your “religion?”) and ordering cardinals, nuns and priests and whoever else to kiss his ass would be “normal, okay and deserved?” I HOPE THE ANSWER IS A RESOUNDING NO!

so is it ONLY a scientology thing or ANY religion/church/faith or any organization kissing his ass he would be okay with? either way, sorry but someone who spent nearly half of his life knowing quote “better” and seemingly living a pretty normal average life for half of his life i don’t buy it and don’t buy any excuse on his part or his mindset…he either was always or became a morally bankrupt person…

i’m not trying to toot my own horn, becomes until one actually lives in the shoes of someone else, you can’t really live their life, all i’m saying is i’m pretty darn sure i would NOT having had a similar childhood and upbringing in fact a worse one then him to be honest (you know the way overblown story of his oh so horrible childhood! sarcasm) be following in HIS shoes and what he has done and become….

I wish i knew it, but frankly if you heard my voice you would think of something else. I am so sorry that you are going through such a bad time. If i was there i could help. i think there is probably a course there for caretakers. I havent taken it, but my mother took it when my brother was dying. She felt it really helped,.Ask your Dr. or hospital. If not maybe consider short term pychiatric help or drugs. Or you can do nothing and be with us. Just take care of yourself or you cannot take care of them. Sending prayers and positive thoughts and hugs lots of hugs,

Sing me “always look on the bright side of life” the monty python version. 🙂

How come no one sends a handsome masseuse? LOL 🙂