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October 16, 2022

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Brian, Radha Soami Sant Mat Science of the Soul won't let me out and I am being tortured with cruelty unbelievable. 27 plus years. Please help me. You once sent me a letter, so well written, best ever. Christie Smith

Haha, interesting thesis. About the how and wherefore of the apparently inexplicable attraction of the Trumps and GSDs of this world to their followers.

But I guess friendship needs to be a two-way thing. Likewise love. Otherwise I suggest it is dysfunctional, and taken to extremes, as here, pathological even. Think about it, a lifelong friendship, or an all-consuming love, love, that is so pure, so strong, as to be literally unconditional, is great and all; but if it's one way? That's just creepy; or if facilitated and encouraged by the
recipient of this unconditional one-way love, then it's exploitative.

True, the (one-way) love of parents for a child that is an asshole, or even a criminal, can be very real. Likewise for someone one is romantically drawn to. While it's foolish to draw set-in-stone generalities, and there's always exceptions to every damn generalization when it comes to human beings and human affairs: but I suggest this kind of unreciprocated obsession, one-way attraction, that is unconditional, is not healthy at all; and, taken to extremes, can be pathological. Something to be set right with therapy (if plain clear thinking doesn't do the trick), not accepted as inevitable.

Sorry, I seem to be disagreeing here with both Setiya and you. But while I can see unconditional love that is reciprocated as a rather wonderful thing; but very strong unreciprocated one-way love, that strikes me as distinctly unhealthy. Not quite ...quite.

(Although even here that dratted refusal of human affairs to be neatly slotted in boxes. There's something ...touching, about carrying a flame for someone, a hopeless unreciprocated love that nevertheless is lifelong. Arguably it is the capacity for this kind of irrationality that makes us fully and truly human. ....But, that said, this kind of one-way unconditional love for a Trump or a GSD or some televangelist scum? That's creepy, and exploitative, and something a qualified therapist or psychiatrist should urgently be called in to treat.)

Heh, it occurs to me, that commonplace thing of today's world, celebrity worship? Being a fan? That answers this description perfectly.

I'm not talking of scum like Trump here. I've never personally grokked --- and most certainly never been victim to --- this fan-hood thing, ever; but so MANY people today are fans, fans of film stars, of singers, of sports persons. Now admiring excellence is one thing, as is admiring grit and perseverance; admiration is fine, sure; but this whole fan deal, that is so commonplace? .........Thinking about this, thanks to your very thought-provoking article, that too, I see, is something essentially exploitative (if encouraged, as it often is by celebrities), and in general, and for all its ubiquity, not a healthy thing, not a very sane thing, at all.

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