by Cinnabar » Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:25 pm
Calomel listens patiently throughout this exploration of terminology, features neutrally polite, allowing the schoolteacher to say her piece before shaking his head lightly.
"I fear I must disagree. I am using the word quite correctly. The Violet Dawn is an organisation that uses religious trappings and manipulation of the natural desire for belonging to bind its members as closely to the organisation as possible, often to the detriment of the individual's relationship with non-members." His tone is pleasant enough, quite matter-of-fact as he explains his reasoning.
"For example, in referring to yourselfs as a family, you deny that which links you to your true families - relatives by blood, friends, neighbours, the wider community. That sort of thing is what marks you as a cult." A light shrug, then, hand raised to forestall any protest that might be made at such words. It would appear that he has more to say.
"Admittedly in a lot of cases such links were lacking among those invited into the cult, which is why they were so delighted to find a body of people which offered such a sense of fellowship, of common purpose and mutual support. Also, I am given to understand that many of those who joined were in what might be termed difficult circumstances - the poor, the crippled, the starving, and so forth - who were unable to fend for themselves, who lacked the support of their community, and thus felt abandoned, ignored and forsaken by the authorities and by society as a whole. This was precisely the tactic employed by the Order of the All, drawing its membership from those without hope, without a centre to their lives, seeking to place itself there instead.
"To say that it is regrettable that people could fall into such misfortune is, of course, an understatement. Your cult provided them with a new community into which they were welcomed with warmth and acceptance, where they could feel like they had a place, a purpose, and where those around them would treat them as one of their own. That they found respite from it in the Violet Dawn is not, in itself, a bad thing. However, what is a bad thing is that your, ah, teacher could seek to prey upon such misfortune, such desperation in support of his own agenda." Cool grey eyes upon the schoolteacher, expression calm but gaze watchful.
"Setting aside debates about whether the Violet Dawn is or is not a cult, the core of the matter lies there: that regardless of what good might have been worked in the lives of those who joined the cult - and I do not deny that there has been some good come of it - all of that has been to further Sin'Vraal's own schemes, rather than through any true philanthropy or altruism on his part. And that is why we have viewed your cult's activities with suspicion, why we took measures to remove from your influence those who might be vulnerable to it. Not because we hate or despise those who belong to the Violet Dawn, but because as a puppet of Vraal's will, the the cult cannot be trusted. Not even when it wears a most seemly mask of charity and public-spirited benevolence, as Vraal himself did." Fingers untwine, palms setting flat on his desk. Quite serious in this, quite determined that this young lady should understand his reasoning.
"So. What gives you the impression that we were at all fooled as to Sin'Vraal's true motives?"
Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.