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Originally Posted by aron
What is so amazing about the confidence trick involved here is how blatant it really is. The only thing holding it together is the willingness or need to believe.
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And ever so willing are members to believe it. One generation gets clued into what's going on, they leave, and the next generation is already there waiting to take the place of their predecessors. That's what is so scary about the whole belief system that exists in the LC. It is devoid of all rational or common sense. It is a perpetual game of
Simon Says.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
There's probably something to this. For example, WL warned often about ambition, which made us all assume that he must have none. But the exact opposite was the truth. He had so much ambition that he couldn't tolerate anyone else's! It's the classic sleight-of-hand distraction, where you wave one hand in the air to attract attention, while the other is manipulating in secret. And the thing that was moving in secret was usually the opposite of what was being waved. Coincidence? Doubtful.
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Lee was the master con man. He developed an entire system that allowed him to get what he wanted, virtually 100% of the time. The actual sleight-of-hand con that was talking place was so simple that we wonder how he got away with it. But more than anything else, WL knew how to play upon people's emotions. He knew what people wanted. He knew how to appeal to that. Take Max, for example. Max was a self-admitted ambitious young man. WL played upon that. WL used that to his own advantage. And when the time came, Max was disposed of.
Lastly, to address the darker side of Lee, I do believe that what he accused so many others of was his own psychological projection of his personality onto others. Ambition? Check. Manipulative? Check. Controlling? Check. But none of these things members would dare accuse Lee of. Those were problems attributed to anyone but Lee.