yeah, okay... nice one, LaRouche.

Once again, it all comes back to your definition or, or what precisely you mean by, "largely."

There are many questions as to who Lyndon Larouche is that can be answered in one simple statement: Lyndon Larouche is the leader of a cult. The memebers coerce students at colleges and protesters form rallies to come back to their office for a "class" which is about 95% Larouchies, and then they go to work on that person. For weeks afterward they will be harassed by phone to come to more meetings and give money, and eventually to "organize" with them, which means to raise more money and recruit more people. Once you have agreed they will move you into housing of their choosing, and give you a weekly stipened (mine started at $200 a week--pretty decent actually), and have you work form 8 in the morning to 10 at night, recruiting, raising money, recruiting, attend "class", raise money, recruit, attend "retreat", raise money. All the while they are pressuring you harder and harder to believe EVERYTHING that they believe (which means believing what Larouche believes--or at least says he believes). Every Sunday you will have a meeting where people confess their digressions from Larouche, talk about how good Larouche is, and discuss "problems"--which usually means someone is not taking their programming well. That person (and it was me a few times) will end up in a small closed room with a "leader" and a Larouche Security Squad member (several Larouchies in each office have weapons and fighting training and spend a few weeks a year at Lyndon's estate in Leesburg, VA to act as guards, or on the road when he travels). In that room someone will
then have a "Beyond Pschoanalysis" session

[NOTE: "Beyond Psyche" was a series of articles published by Larouche in the 70s that he claims is a method far more powerful than any psychoanalysis in helping people attain their maximum potential. It's core is to unnerve and unsettle people emotionally through personal attacks concerning sexuality or real or perceived shortcomings, along with personal information obtained earlier in confidence. Then the person is questioned about contradictions between their thinking and actions (ex "You care about the starving people of the world? Then why can you only organize ten hours a day?). This is done until a full emotional collapse is achieved, which generally means crying hysterically--no one ever made me cry hysterically though I saw it happen to a few other people, and maybe I did cry a little;-). Then the person is supposed to admit their shortcoming (confess), and ask the leader how to be a better person. The leader then redefines the mission for them. This is the bare bones of "Beyond Psychoanalysis" found in the "Beyond Psyche PSP 2" essay. Here are a few quotes from one essay of BP, though there are half a dozen or so, I can only find two online:

"The dialectical method is immediately, empirically, a change in the state of mind, in which control by “sincerity of feeling” is ended"

"It is as if the group-leader had each participant's mind inside his own"

"In individual psychoanalysis, or the more powerful processes of competently-led group analysis, this impotence of self-consciousness is overcome, to a varying, greater or lesser, extent, by the substitution of social love" (social love being the Larouche campaign, mind you!)

Oddly enough the lessons taught on how to properly "psychoanalize" someone, paralell the same methods outlined in books written in the 50s and 60s but they called it "brainwashing". Funny little accident I guess.]

After a session, one would begin to accept things they couldn't before, people work harder, and start using the in-group words properly. Then pay will start to decrease--slowly--until it is down to 50 or 60 bucks a week for 90 to 100 hours of work. Hunger and constant activity, fighting to save the planet from mass chaos of the oncoming financial collapse, and we're raising lots of money.. however, nothing seems to be happening...hmm we're running for President...but we cant win...oh right! but we CAN get matching funds from the Federal Election Commision, and maybe next year I'll get to wait on Larouche hand and foot, or maybe one of the regional leaders will choose me to sleep with until a new fresher recruit comes along! Recruit, raise funds, recruit, raise funds....decide you want to challenge the leadership, boom! closed door meeting, yelling, crying, "I'm sorry I'm weak", Leader redefines the mission.."I think I want to have children"...boom! closed door meeting, yelling, crying, "I'm sorry I'm weak", Leader redefines the mission..."I want to go on a vacation and visit my parents"...boom! closed door meeting, yelling, crying, "I'm sorry I'm weak", Leader redefines the mission..

That's life as a Larouchie.

That's life in a CULT.

I know it seems like some of the ideas are interesting, widen the political debate, yada yada---but I have watched a 50 year old woman, Marcia, be yelled at until broken down in tears in front of a group of 15 people. She tried to leave the room and Debbie Freeman, Larouche's spokeswoman and regional leader in Baltimore, yelled,"Don't let her leave!"--when no one else in the room stopped her, Debbie ran and grabbed her (Debbie is a big woman, slightly Amazonish) and forced her back to her chair then forced her down into it. As Marcia cried hysterically, in a low voice saying over and over "that's not what happened", and Debbie quietly told her "That IS what happened..."and then spoke something for a while quietly that no one could hear.

It looked like an abusive mother talking to a bad child, and when it was over Marcia sat there and cried some more, and everyone else left to get on the phone, and raise more money.

Ahh, life in the cult. How I miss it.

It's not a movement its a cult, beware, pass it on, tell your friends, these people are scary.