Palms Down, Moon (Not That Anyone Else Would Notice)

One of the most moving testimonies to being in a cult I've ever read came this morning from a former Moonie. Why did it get me so? Because while this guy, Mark Palmer, said what I've heard a billion times:

I had done too many intellectual somersaults. I had witnessed too many sleights of hand, too many occasions when the ends could not justify some dubious and outright dishonest means.

He's one of the few ex-cultists who added this: 

I am less proud of allowing Moon to lord it over so many young people’s lives over such a long period of time,…

See, whether online or off - or whether someone is a full-blown cultist or not - very few people I come in contact with EVER considers what's happening to someone else RIGHT NOW who's still trapped in mental slavery (or, especially, what it means for a society to condone it, or what effect it's having unbeknownst to us). As a frequent antagonist on Ann Althouse's blog keeps insisting, all that matters - in this age of brainwashing - is if YOU got caught. And if you have been - hey - there's nothing anybody can or should do about it, even if you die.

After all these years - coming as it does from so many directions - I still find such ruthless bullshit "thinking" astounds me.

So Mark Palmer, if you ever read this, I salute you: 

 Not only for eventually getting out, but for doing so with your humanity intact,...