4.03.2007

Apologia pro apologia

0 observations
I am, to a limited degree, a Twelve Tribes apologist. I'm not a member, but I'll stand up and offer some defense on their behalf on some issues. This post is intended to clarify my qualifications to do so, make clear ways I'm not qualified to do so, explain my motivations for doing so, and make it clear that I see issues they're not defendable in.

First, an item of 'lack of qualifications'. I'm not a member. I've never been a member. Despite what I'm sure they hope, I'm not going to be a member unless the entire organization changes in some pretty fundamental ways. More on that later. I can't offer the insider perspective of an accepted member, and I'm quite aware that there are things I haven't been told.

Next, some degree of qualifications. My information regarding the Twelve Tribes does not come predominantly from the web (I've read a lot of what's available on the web, and I'll say more about such material soon.) I've spent a large amount of time in a small handful of their locations. I've spent some time at one of their businesses. I've spent some time at one of their houses. I've visited a couple of their other houses and businesses. I've had extensive conversations with a number of men, women, and children. I've had some of them over to my house on a number of occasions. I've attended a few of their regularly scheduled ceremonies, and a couple of the sporadic ones. In short, I have interacted extensively with some members of the Twelve Tribes on a personal level.

Another degree of qualification: Communication is one of my particular fields of study. For anyone with some personal experience of these folks and some reading of what's available on the web (including their own internal publications), there seems to be a vast disconnect between what they say about some subjects and what they actually do. A lot of that (not all, but a lot) is due to the Twelve Tribes as a group having some remarkably bad communication skills in some areas. When I say 'remarkably bad', I mean it the same way I would accuse someone who said "Let's go forth and pillage that village!" when they meant "It's time to harvest the apple crop" as having some remarkably bad communication skills. I have at my disposal some tools and skills which make it easier for me to understand what they mean (despite what they say), and I count this as a qualification.

Time for a disqualification: My ability to translate is limited by my ability to observe what they do as individual people. If there are areas where information is being deliberately held back from me, that'll result in inaccurate translations. Any argument I make has to be qualified with "Assuming what I've seen has been accurately representative". This isn't much of a drawback, though, since the same applies to any source of information, and I do have the advantage of having a more reliable source.

Qualification: I do have first-hand information. Aside being an International House of Porn, the Web is a great source of information, but it's not a great source of reliably reliable information. Any dork with a keyboard can contribute a Wikipedia article, and unless the number of people who really know what they're talking about is larger than the number of people who think they know what they're talking about (but don't), what you're going to see will be, effectively, worthless garbage. Emotionally charged, rabble-rousing, call-to-arms garbage, but garbage nonetheless. If you pick a random topic, and think about how many people really have good, reliable, well-researched information on it, you should come up with a pretty small number. If you look at the same topic and imagine all the schmucks who think they know more than they really do, you should come up with a larger number. Information on the web about the Twelve Tribes -could- be accurate, but most of it is exceedingly unreliable, and much of it is distressingly second-hand.

So, while my first-hand information -may be- deliberately compromised by the agendas of the people in the Twelve Tribes that I interact with, keep in mind that stuff on the web is -probably- compromised by the agendas of the people writing it. Really, I suggest you actually drop your assumptions and biases and try to dig up information for yourself, but that's usually asking too much.

Qualification: I'm not a member, and I'm not going to be a member. I realize this is, in some regards, a disqualification, but it cuts both ways. I'm not subject to their indoctrination, I've got no pressure to keep certain things secret, and I've got reasons for not being a member. I see that they have some real issues, and I'm not interested in ignoring those points. Not in order to join them, and not in order to make them sound better than they are to anyone else. Moreover, my objections are based on a decent amount of first-hand, personal information, not on the shallow knee-jerking that comprises most of what's on the web.

And that leads into my motivations. There are bad things... really bad... about the Twelve Tribes. There are good things... really good... about the Twelve Tribes. I'm aware of some stuff in each of these categories. I would very much like to see them abandon the bad stuff and do something fantastically great with the good stuff, but that requires that they realize the bad stuff is actually bad. So, I'm motivated to affect the situation so they're more likely to be able to see what they're doing wrong.

There's a problem, though. Well, a bunch of them, but the first is this: It's hard to see what you're doing wrong unless someone else you trust can point it out to you. Individually, the Twelve Tribes have got this point figured out and use it heavily, and generally use it well. (That's one of thier good things.) As a group, however, they don't trust anyone but themselves, and so as a group, they're not in a good position to overcome their blind spots and be able to see the things they're collectively doing wrong. So, I'm motivated to affect the situation so they (as a group) might be able to trust some other source to help them identify bad things in themselves.

That raises another problem: There's got to be a trustworthy entity to give trust to, otherwise you're just setting yourself up to get screwed. To a certain degree, you can base trust on the benefit of the doubt, but if you've already observed that someone isn't trustworthy, you'd be an idiot to trust them... and the Twelve Tribes are largely in this situation. They get attacked, over and over, for things they don't believe and things they don't do... largely because the attackers are ignorant of what's actually going on, and too lazy to find out (aside from reading what's available on the web, which I've already lamented.) If I had a drinking problem, but was very good at never injuring anyone (drunk or not) and always paying all my bills (drunk or not), then someone who came up and attacked me on the grounds that I hospitalized folks and never paid my dues would be... something less than credible. I wouldn't be interested in seeking their help with my drinking problem, that's for sure. In a similar manner, the Twelve Tribes are quite justified in not listening to external criticisms, even the few that are relevant, because as a general rule, external criticisms are wildly untrustworthy. So, I'm motivated to affect the situation so that there are some trustworthy outside sources that could help the Twelve Tribes identify bad things in themselves.

And that leads to why I'd be, to a limited degree, a Twelve Tribes apologist. If you'll allow me to indulge in some hyperbole, I'd like to ride forth and vanquish all the criticism, venom, and moral indignation that's born of ignorance and misunderstanding... and I want to do so in order to clear the field for criticism born of good, accurate, trustworthy information. I want to take down people's inappropriate attacks on the Twelve Tribes and divert those energies to appropriate attacks. I want to stop people from reinforcing the currently established fact that the Twelve Tribes can't trust outside perspectives, because if they don't have outside perspectives they can trust they won't be able to overcome and clean themselves of the truly bad elements hiding in their collective blind spots.