The really dirty thing about this, and about the girl in the original post, (the one duped by Cohen), is that it all turns on ASSUMPTIONS.
Cohen knew that she would ASSUME that he had her back, so she just read what was put in front of her. Landmark advertises that they will empower us, help us think outside the box, and so we sign up for the Forum ASSUMING that this is what we are going to get, OR AT LEAST THAT THIS IS THE INTENT. Most of us have certain morals that are deeply engrained, and we just ASSUME that the "empowerment" will not involve violating those internalized rules. Cohen used her ASSUMPTIONS against her, and I can see very clearly that Landmark does this ALL THE TIME. I would say that it is even in the waiver form that they have everybody sign.
There are stages in childhood development where external rules, such as "Do not steal, do not lie," become internalized. Bakkagirl, and others on this board have more psychological knowledge than I do, but as a parent, I did read about some of this. Maybe some of the others could explain this better, but from my understanding, it's as if the child goes from not stealing because they know that they will be punished to not stealing because it hurts them internally. I think that, when these ethics become internalized, as in most by adulthood, we just ASSUME that no decent person would do these things. Since we ASSUME that our friends are decent people, we ASSUME that they would not do these things. And then they delight in pulling the rug out from under us!
My query is whether LGATs manage to make these values EXTERNAL again. Then these people can fake a decency that they no longer have.
I had another thought: since we were discussing embarrassment over being duped, and even this embarrassment being used as "collateral," there is always the possibility that some people who recruit are embarrassed over this, as well. Does it make them feel better if they can recruit and dupe their friends and acquaintances? Then they don't feel so badly, because they can tell themselves, "Well, she fell for it, too."
Cohen knew that she would ASSUME that he had her back, so she just read what was put in front of her. Landmark advertises that they will empower us, help us think outside the box, and so we sign up for the Forum ASSUMING that this is what we are going to get, OR AT LEAST THAT THIS IS THE INTENT. Most of us have certain morals that are deeply engrained, and we just ASSUME that the "empowerment" will not involve violating those internalized rules. Cohen used her ASSUMPTIONS against her, and I can see very clearly that Landmark does this ALL THE TIME. I would say that it is even in the waiver form that they have everybody sign.
There are stages in childhood development where external rules, such as "Do not steal, do not lie," become internalized. Bakkagirl, and others on this board have more psychological knowledge than I do, but as a parent, I did read about some of this. Maybe some of the others could explain this better, but from my understanding, it's as if the child goes from not stealing because they know that they will be punished to not stealing because it hurts them internally. I think that, when these ethics become internalized, as in most by adulthood, we just ASSUME that no decent person would do these things. Since we ASSUME that our friends are decent people, we ASSUME that they would not do these things. And then they delight in pulling the rug out from under us!
My query is whether LGATs manage to make these values EXTERNAL again. Then these people can fake a decency that they no longer have.
I had another thought: since we were discussing embarrassment over being duped, and even this embarrassment being used as "collateral," there is always the possibility that some people who recruit are embarrassed over this, as well. Does it make them feel better if they can recruit and dupe their friends and acquaintances? Then they don't feel so badly, because they can tell themselves, "Well, she fell for it, too."