Learned Helplessness

aron · 01-01-2024, 07:46 AM

Wasn't sure where to put this, so starting a thread. Moderator can append it elsewhere if desired.

"When human beings are continuously exposed to situations where they have little to no control over anything, it often results in learned helplessness. A real-world example of learned helplessness occurs when people are taken as prisoners of war or placed in concentration camps. Those unfortunate people are almost always stripped of their dignity, and basic needs like adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care are often withheld from them, not to mention the physical abuse and even torture that many have endured. They are also usually denied something just as essential to the mental and physical well being of all humans: autonomy.

Unfortunately, there are many examples from history where people were denied the ability to make even the simplest decisions for themselves, like when to sleep or go to the bathroom, or whether they could even speak. Prolonged exposure to that kind of environment exacts a huge physical and psychological toll. As a result, many eventually either suffer irreparable psychological trauma or lose the will to live. For every story of the triumph of the human spirit like Victor Frankl, John McCain or Louis Zamperini, there are hundreds of others who succumb to their circumstances and die a slow, miserable death."

https://medium.com/@richardobenjr/wh...s-f2567a6dc40f

aron · 01-01-2024, 08:27 AM

Following the first post, there's a lot of literature about what happens psychologically when people believe that they have no choice. It is discouraging and dispiriting, and if it's combined with abuse, people tend to depression and despair.

Imagine that you are 3 years old, and continually told that reality is "X". You go to meetings sit with Mommy and Daddy, and continually hear "X". Then you are 4, 5, 6 and go to children's meetings and sing nursery rhymes about "X". Then young people's meetings, high school meetings, and your peers get up and speak and reinforce "X".

What if "X" includes, "You must do as you are told, always trust leadership, they are always right, be one with the speaking, anyone who thinks differently is rebellious against God and marked for destruction" etc etc...? LC members literally hear this day and night from infancy. If this was your experience, what to when you're 25, 35 years old and hear of abuse? Or see it, or experience it? You're relentlessly trained into passive obedience. But something is clearly wrong here! Perhaps the teachings don't make sense, or they are self-contradictory, or don't follow Scripture, or deviate from "orthodox" understanding of Scripture (i.e. traditional church teachings). Or else the family member of the Church Leader begins to abuse the church members, or takes their money.

At that point the programming takes over, and one sees evidences in the speaking. “We do what we are told” was what one Blended RG said to a co-worker in the SE USA during the New Way, who protested against the heavy-handed Ministry "Office". “I’m proud to be an ostrich with my head stuck in the sand”, said another, when turmoil arose subsequent to the revelations of the Office (Philip Lee’s) predatory abuses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

...or the notion that any attempt to defend a "personal boundary" against an abuser in position of authority would render you an enemy of the cross of Christ!

Above quote is from STTIL page 21: https://www.johningalls.com/#/reader/chapter/15

The above quotes from P.S. are examples of what people hear from infancy. "Do what you are told". "Don't think". "Don't do anything without fellowship." It brings a state of learned helplessness, of conditioned paralysis. Then, either follows numbness or despair.

Ohio · 01-01-2024, 01:08 PM

aron, tragic indeed.

I was just given a booklet by Ray Comfort, Scientific Facts in the Bible. In the Intro, he proposes a potential narrative, " Imagine you are viewing a luxury liner moving thru calm waters. To your amazement, a dozen people jump off clinging to a lifeboat. The rest of the passengers laugh at their stupidity. What they did was so foolish, it made no sense. Suddenly the ship hits an iceberg and sinks..."

The author is an evangelist with a gospel message, but it also applied to the LC mindset. What is one to do when raised from birth that everything ever needed must be found in that ship? No matter what dangers lied ahead, one must never leave the boat.

I have watched young people, who knew nothing about Christians beyond the Recovery, so immature towards life in general, able to so easily spout off wholesale condemnations of the entire body of Christ. Nothing out there of any value!

When their own "ship" begins tossing in the "wind and waves" of life, what options do they have? Do they really have the Lord at their side? Can they find a safe "lifeboat" with other children of God? Can they swim to a "lighthouse" on the distant shore?

Or do they only see a coming disaster because they have they been programmed with "learned helplessness?"

aron · 01-02-2024, 06:47 AM

(I meant to write a 3rd part to my comments earlier, but got occupied).

Every child comes into the world helpless, and told (and shown) what to eat, what to wear, what to think and to speak. And there’s always a bias, often implicit, sometimes explicit. “This is the way to do things.” But in fact it is really only one possible way out of many.

In my case, I got the Baptist “hellfire” sermon at around age 7 when my family was invited to church and given the altar call. I went forward. It’s hard to imagine a young person in that circumstance doing anything else. My entire family went forward. But my point here is that eventually one should learn to take responsibility for one’s life, one’s person, and actions. What I do, what I think, what I wear, what I speak are my responsibilities.

So if someone is born into the Islamic faith, or their parents are atheists or agnostic, or they live in a Buddhist or Confucian culture, that’s completely understandable. We all are born into something. But if we are condemned merely for thinking, for attempting to understand and consider, for asking questions to find out what really happened, then we are kept in a state of perpetual infancy. Everything is handed to us, and we passively accept everything like a 4-year old.

This is what I meant by 'learned helplessness'. When we are confronted with a problem, we have no skills to solve it, and resolve the difficulty. We are forced to ignore, to pretend. In the case of WL and the LSM, all other Christian groups were hopelessly defective, corrupt, deformed, and so forth. Then, when WL and family inevitably get exposed, what to do? There is no way to resolve the difficulty.

aron · 01-02-2024, 06:59 AM

I wanted to add as a kind of postscript, a final thought, related to my third post.

We only can build the world out of the ingredients we are given. Only God creates out of "nothing". The rest of us are forced to use the ingredients we are given. "What do you have, that you did not receive?"

But what we do with the ingredients that we receive is our fully responsibility. The world we build is still our world, not somebody else's. If you want to live in Witness Lee's world, you can. But it is your choice, and your responsibility.

Some will say, "No, it's not Witness Lee's world, it's the Bible." But that is disingenuous. It's the Bible interpreted by Witness Lee. Some verses are deemed crucial via his supposed revelation, and many others are ignored or deemed as mere human concepts. But in reality, the human concepts belong to Witness Lee. The question is, do we passively receive them, or examine them critically, like any other input?

ThankfulForever777 · 01-02-2024, 01:32 PM

While it may not directly align with the concept of "learned helplessness," I've observed a trend among many young and middle-aged men within the Lord's Recovery. Many struggle to maintain steady employment or adequately provide for their families. It's disheartening to see a pattern of passivity, where instead of actively pursuing solutions, they resort to complaining about adverse circumstances such as a tough economy or unfair employers. Rather than taking responsibility, they wait passively for someone else to intervene. They won't even adequately pray, fast or have faith in God's promises in his Holy Scriptures.

Interestingly, this contrasts starkly with individuals in another (non-recovery) church where I currently attend where such situations seem nonexistent.

It's clear to me that these men in the Lord's recovery got damaged by confusing teachings and philosophy of Lord's Recovery.

01-01-2024, 07:46 AM	#1
aron Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Natal Transvaal Posts: 5,631	Learned Helplessness Wasn't sure where to put this, so starting a thread. Moderator can append it elsewhere if desired. "When human beings are continuously exposed to situations where they have little to no control over anything, it often results in learned helplessness. A real-world example of learned helplessness occurs when people are taken as prisoners of war or placed in concentration camps. Those unfortunate people are almost always stripped of their dignity, and basic needs like adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care are often withheld from them, not to mention the physical abuse and even torture that many have endured. They are also usually denied something just as essential to the mental and physical well being of all humans: autonomy. Unfortunately, there are many examples from history where people were denied the ability to make even the simplest decisions for themselves, like when to sleep or go to the bathroom, or whether they could even speak. Prolonged exposure to that kind of environment exacts a huge physical and psychological toll. As a result, many eventually either suffer irreparable psychological trauma or lose the will to live. For every story of the triumph of the human spirit like Victor Frankl, John McCain or Louis Zamperini, there are hundreds of others who succumb to their circumstances and die a slow, miserable death." https://medium.com/@richardobenjr/wh...s-f2567a6dc40f __________________ "Freedom is free. It's slavery that's so horribly expensive" - Colonel Templeton, ret., of the 12th Scottish Highlanders, the 'Black Fusiliers'

01-01-2024, 01:08 PM	#3
Ohio Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Greater Ohio Posts: 13,693	Re: Learned Helplessness aron, tragic indeed. I was just given a booklet by Ray Comfort, Scientific Facts in the Bible. In the Intro, he proposes a potential narrative, " Imagine you are viewing a luxury liner moving thru calm waters. To your amazement, a dozen people jump off clinging to a lifeboat. The rest of the passengers laugh at their stupidity. What they did was so foolish, it made no sense. Suddenly the ship hits an iceberg and sinks..." The author is an evangelist with a gospel message, but it also applied to the LC mindset. What is one to do when raised from birth that everything ever needed must be found in that ship? No matter what dangers lied ahead, one must never leave the boat. I have watched young people, who knew nothing about Christians beyond the Recovery, so immature towards life in general, able to so easily spout off wholesale condemnations of the entire body of Christ. Nothing out there of any value! When their own "ship" begins tossing in the "wind and waves" of life, what options do they have? Do they really have the Lord at their side? Can they find a safe "lifeboat" with other children of God? Can they swim to a "lighthouse" on the distant shore? Or do they only see a coming disaster because they have they been programmed with "learned helplessness?" __________________ Ohio's motto is: With God all things are possible!. Keeping all my posts short, quick, living, and to the point!

01-02-2024, 06:47 AM	#4
aron Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Natal Transvaal Posts: 5,631	Learned Helplessness 3 of 3 (I meant to write a 3rd part to my comments earlier, but got occupied). Every child comes into the world helpless, and told (and shown) what to eat, what to wear, what to think and to speak. And there’s always a bias, often implicit, sometimes explicit. “This is the way to do things.” But in fact it is really only one possible way out of many. In my case, I got the Baptist “hellfire” sermon at around age 7 when my family was invited to church and given the altar call. I went forward. It’s hard to imagine a young person in that circumstance doing anything else. My entire family went forward. But my point here is that eventually one should learn to take responsibility for one’s life, one’s person, and actions. What I do, what I think, what I wear, what I speak are my responsibilities. So if someone is born into the Islamic faith, or their parents are atheists or agnostic, or they live in a Buddhist or Confucian culture, that’s completely understandable. We all are born into something. But if we are condemned merely for thinking, for attempting to understand and consider, for asking questions to find out what really happened, then we are kept in a state of perpetual infancy. Everything is handed to us, and we passively accept everything like a 4-year old. This is what I meant by 'learned helplessness'. When we are confronted with a problem, we have no skills to solve it, and resolve the difficulty. We are forced to ignore, to pretend. In the case of WL and the LSM, all other Christian groups were hopelessly defective, corrupt, deformed, and so forth. Then, when WL and family inevitably get exposed, what to do? There is no way to resolve the difficulty. __________________ "Freedom is free. It's slavery that's so horribly expensive" - Colonel Templeton, ret., of the 12th Scottish Highlanders, the 'Black Fusiliers'

01-02-2024, 06:59 AM	#5
aron Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Natal Transvaal Posts: 5,631	Postscript I wanted to add as a kind of postscript, a final thought, related to my third post. We only can build the world out of the ingredients we are given. Only God creates out of "nothing". The rest of us are forced to use the ingredients we are given. "What do you have, that you did not receive?" But what we do with the ingredients that we receive is our fully responsibility. The world we build is still our world, not somebody else's. If you want to live in Witness Lee's world, you can. But it is your choice, and your responsibility. Some will say, "No, it's not Witness Lee's world, it's the Bible." But that is disingenuous. It's the Bible interpreted by Witness Lee. Some verses are deemed crucial via his supposed revelation, and many others are ignored or deemed as mere human concepts. But in reality, the human concepts belong to Witness Lee. The question is, do we passively receive them, or examine them critically, like any other input? __________________ "Freedom is free. It's slavery that's so horribly expensive" - Colonel Templeton, ret., of the 12th Scottish Highlanders, the 'Black Fusiliers'

01-02-2024, 01:32 PM	#6
ThankfulForever777 Member Join Date: Sep 2023 Location: USA Posts: 34	Re: Learned Helplessness While it may not directly align with the concept of "learned helplessness," I've observed a trend among many young and middle-aged men within the Lord's Recovery. Many struggle to maintain steady employment or adequately provide for their families. It's disheartening to see a pattern of passivity, where instead of actively pursuing solutions, they resort to complaining about adverse circumstances such as a tough economy or unfair employers. Rather than taking responsibility, they wait passively for someone else to intervene. They won't even adequately pray, fast or have faith in God's promises in his Holy Scriptures. Interestingly, this contrasts starkly with individuals in another (non-recovery) church where I currently attend where such situations seem nonexistent. It's clear to me that these men in the Lord's recovery got damaged by confusing teachings and philosophy of Lord's Recovery.