MLM Survivors Club: Re: [MLM Survivors Club] Re: MLM Physical Stress Symptoms

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Re: [MLM Survivors Club] Re: MLM Physical Stress Symptoms

On Sunday 13 January 2008, jennasknnr wrote:
> My son, who is clinically depressed (will not take his meds, his $75
> a month vitamins are good enough)and OCD, has become increasingly
> more anxious over the time he has been involved in Quixtar.
> Interestingly, Hal, you use the term "drones" a lot. My son is
> becoming more and more drone-like. I see him shutting down
> emotionally. I believe this is his sub-conscious defense for the
> depression and anxiousness. And also a product of the brain-washing.
> He used to be a empathetic person, unusually so for his age. I
> can't find a drop of that in him anymore.
>
> Jenna

The use of drone is quite intentional. As I mentioned in a previous
post, I won't be using the names I love to use for these companies
(like Quackstar or Scamway) and instead use rather easily understood
abbreviations (like QS or QX for the former and AW for the latter)
because a point comes across much better if you're not using weird
names. I do tend to still use terms like upslime and drones when
appropriate. Upslime fits if you're describing certain types of people
and drone is often appropriate.

I never used the term drone much until the Borg showed up on Star Trek:
The Next Generation. It wasn't long after that I got a call from the
head of a writer's agency saying that one of the exec producers at Trek
had read and loved a spec script I sent in. Unfortunately, it
paralleled some stories they had in development. (It was about the
Captain's half-Romulan daughter and they were doing a story about a
dead crew members half-Romulan daughter.) I did get invited to pitch
stories to them and that only ended when they shut the door on all
freelance writers. I had a few stories that tangentially involved the
Borg, so I had to do a lot of thinking about them.

For those who haven't seen the show, the Borg are cyborgs: mostly human
(or some kind of alien) but with so many computer implants in them that
there is no individual thought. The Borg is a collective and if one
member comes at you and you kill them, the next one, without any fear
and especially without any independent thought, will turn and come
after you as well. Eventually you'll be overwhelmed by them since
killing one doesn't stop the others. These people that have
been "Borged" are controlled by the hive Queen (or whatever Borg
controls that ship), so they don't think. They do exactly what they
are told. Their thoughts are those of the collective. If they are
separated, they do not know how to behave and their first thought is to
return to the collective.

To me, that's a perfect description of a MLM member. They are drones
and I realized that as I watched my then-girlfriend who was literally a
genius learn their ways and forget how to think independently.

And for any MLM members reading this who say that's not true, who
decides what is on sale? Who decides what your business plan should
be? Who tells you how to present your plan? Who tells you how to
recruit? Who tells you how to sell? What decisions do you make? Can
you decide to go or not to go to an event? If you decide not to go,
will they put pressure on you to go? (If you think they won't, then
decide not to go to one just to test it out and don't go -- see what
kind of support you get then. If you think I'm wrong, prove it!) Do
you decide what products your business will carry or are you told?
What actual independent choices do you make where you are not actually
following your upline?

Yes, that's why I call MLM members drones. Wake up and smell the
freedom of independent thought!

Hal