Contempt

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  288 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:09,688 to renowned ladies' man 289 00:13:09,789 --> 00:13:12,091 to conniving entrepreneur, 290 00:13:12,191 --> 00:13:15,461 laying the foundation for his greatest scheme yet. 291 00:13:17,229 --> 00:13:20,666 In 1997, a 37-year-old Raniere 292 00:13:20,766 --> 00:13:22,868 and his girlfriend, Toni Natalie, 293 00:13:22,968 --> 00:13:26,205 pivot to their next moneymaking venture-- 294 00:13:26,305 --> 00:13:30,176 National Health Network, a health products store. 295 00:13:30,276 --> 00:13:31,644 [Paige] National Health Network 296 00:13:31,744 --> 00:13:34,513 is right in line with Consumer Buyline. 297 00:13:34,613 --> 00:13:37,049 Honestly, he learned one trick and then was like, 298 00:13:37,149 --> 00:13:38,083 let's do it again-- 299 00:13:38,184 --> 00:13:39,952 this time, with supplements. 300 00:13:40,052 --> 00:13:42,555 And there's a lot of multilevel marketing schemes 301 00:13:42,655 --> 00:13:45,090 centered around supplements. 302 00:13:45,191 --> 00:13:47,927 [Narrator] But Raniere has bigger aspirations. 303 00:13:48,027 --> 00:13:49,495 Later that year, he meets the woman 304 00:13:49,595 --> 00:13:52,531 who he thinks can help bring them to fruition 305 00:13:52,631 --> 00:13:54,700 when 43-year-old Nancy Salzman 306 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,937 walks into his store seeking help. 307 00:13:58,037 --> 00:14:01,807 Salzman comes in looking for a natural remedy 308 00:14:01,907 --> 00:14:05,211 for a stomach issue. 309 00:14:05,311 --> 00:14:08,280 Apparently, she's so constipated, 310 00:14:08,380 --> 00:14:13,219 that she's looking for any solution to solve this issue. 311 00:14:13,319 --> 00:14:16,422 And that's when she gets to meet Keith. 312 00:14:16,522 --> 00:14:18,657 [Narrator] The chance meeting will change the trajectory 313 00:14:18,757 --> 00:14:20,292 of the trio's lives, 314 00:14:20,392 --> 00:14:23,929 and those of countless women to come, forever. 315 00:14:24,029 --> 00:14:26,198 [Robert] Keith is moving on into a new venture. 316 00:14:26,298 --> 00:14:30,135 And Nancy Salzman can help him with his new company. 317 00:14:30,236 --> 00:14:34,473 Nancy is kind of a therapist in her own right. 318 00:14:34,573 --> 00:14:39,245 She's involved in what some people would call pseudoscience, 319 00:14:39,345 --> 00:14:41,280 therapy that really revolve around 320 00:14:41,380 --> 00:14:44,250 reframing to process trauma. 321 00:14:44,350 --> 00:14:45,718 It's also something that a lot of 322 00:14:45,818 --> 00:14:49,221 large group awareness trainings use to convince people 323 00:14:49,321 --> 00:14:52,258 that they are the masters of their own destiny. 324 00:14:52,358 --> 00:14:53,926 It was at this point in my life, 325 00:14:54,026 --> 00:14:58,163 when I contemplated giving up on personal empowerment altogether, 326 00:14:58,264 --> 00:15:00,833 that I met a gentleman named Keith Raniere. 327 00:15:00,933 --> 00:15:03,435 He had the answers. 328 00:15:03,535 --> 00:15:05,938 [Narrator] Raniere and Salzman immediately see the potential 329 00:15:06,038 --> 00:15:10,175 for synergizing their individual skill sets. 330 00:15:10,276 --> 00:15:13,178 [Dr. Joseph] Nancy becomes enamored by his talents. 331 00:15:13,279 --> 00:15:17,116 And she thinks that he is a genius, 332 00:15:17,216 --> 00:15:19,351 and that he's a dynamic leader. 333 00:15:19,451 --> 00:15:22,621 Keith, on the other hand, is equally enamored by Nancy.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  CLEANNESSI was at our usual table, next to the window that made up most of the restaurant’s east-facing wall. We liked to look out on the garden, where even in mid-October there would usually have been diners talking and smoking at the tables that were empty now, stripped of their umbrellas and chairs, black metal chains locked around their legs. It was a lovely garden, its shrubs and flowers rare in Mladost, a green relief among the concrete desolation of so much of the neighborhood. There was nothing to be done about the sound of traffic nearby, or the exhaust that tainted the air, and of course one only had to look up to see the gray of the apartment blocks, which put an end to all greenness. We enjoyed it best from inside, we had learned, it was a place to rest our eyes. But tonight everything outside was movement and agitation, as it had been all week, ever since a great wind had swept into or descended upon or laid siege to the city, it’s hard to know how to put it, or my sense of it shifted with the days. It came up from Africa, the guards at my school said, old men who greeted it with resignation; it carries sand from Africa, you’ll feel it, it is a horrible wind. And they were right, there was something almost malevolent about it, as if it were an intelligence, or at least an intention, carrying off whatever wasn’t secure, worrying every loose edge. It made the city’s cheap construction seem cheaper, more provisional and tenuous, a temporary arrangement—as is true of all places, I know, though it’s a truth I’d rather not acknowledge, of course I came to hate the wind.

• From This Boy's Life: A Memoir (1989)

  Everyone called him Psycho and he had accepted the name like a vocation. Chuck was with Psycho when he snatched the cat. The cat walked up to them while they were standing outside the Concrete drugstore and began to rub against their legs. Psycho picked the cat up to do it some injury, but when he saw the name on its collar he got an idea. The cat belonged to a widow whose husband had owned a car dealership in town. Psycho figured she must be loaded, and decided to put the arm on her. He called the widow from a pay phone and told her he had the cat and would sell it back to her for twenty dollars. Otherwise he would kill it. To show he meant business he held the cat up to the receiver and pulled its tail, but it wouldn’t make any noise. Finally Psycho moved the receiver back to his own mouth and said, “Meow, meow.” Then he told the widow to get the money and meet him at a certain place at a certain time. When Chuck tried to talk him out of going, Psycho called him a pussy. The widow wasn’t there. Some other people were. Then there was Jerry Huff. Huff was handsome in a pouty, heavy-lidded way. Girls liked him, which was bad luck for them. He was short but enormously strong and vain. His vanity crested above his head in a stupendous gleaming pompadour. He was a bully. He loitered in the bathrooms and made fun of other boys’ dicks and stepped on their white buck shoes and held them over toilet bowls by their ankles. Bullies are supposed to be cowards but Huff confounded this wisdom. He would try to bully anyone, even guys who had already beaten him up. Arch Cook also ran with us. Arch was an amiable simpleton who talked to himself and sometimes shouted or laughed for no reason. His head was long and thin and flat on the sides. Chuck told me that a car had driven over him when he was a baby. This was probably true. Huff used to tell him, “Arch, you might’ve been okay if that guy hadn’t backed up to see what he hit.” Arch was Huff’s cousin. There were five of us. We piled into Chuck’s ’53 Chevy and drove around looking for a car we could siphon gas out of. If we found one we emptied a few gallons from its tank into Chuck’s and spent the morning tearing up the fire roads into the mountains. Around lunchtime we usually drove back down to Concrete and dropped in on Arch’s sister Veronica. She’d been in Norma’s class at Concrete. She still had the pert nose and wide blue eyes of the lesser Homecoming royalty she’d once been, but her face was going splotchy and loose from drink.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  873 00:43:01,812 --> 00:43:04,181 Money is being stolen left and right. 874 00:43:04,281 --> 00:43:06,717 Money is being moved around. 875 00:43:06,817 --> 00:43:10,955 The aura of success that these people are putting on, 876 00:43:11,055 --> 00:43:12,423 it's a fraud. 877 00:43:12,523 --> 00:43:15,626 People who try to leave start being tracked by people, 878 00:43:15,726 --> 00:43:18,629 and even worse, people who are still in it realize 879 00:43:18,729 --> 00:43:22,733 that Keith is basically sleeping with everybody. 880 00:43:32,042 --> 00:43:35,145 He has all these books in his "executive library". 881 00:43:35,245 --> 00:43:37,581 He comes off like he's this intellectual person, 882 00:43:37,681 --> 00:43:39,016 but it's the library he uses 883 00:43:39,116 --> 00:43:42,353 to also have sex with dozens of women. 884 00:43:42,453 --> 00:43:46,357 [Narrator] And that's not all the Forbes article lays bare. 885 00:43:46,457 --> 00:43:48,792 People close to Keith Raniere will tell you he's pretty lazy. 886 00:43:48,892 --> 00:43:51,629 He's a guy that sleeps in during the day. 887 00:43:51,729 --> 00:43:53,631 So if you wanna get close to Keith, 888 00:43:53,731 --> 00:43:57,167 you have to attend midnight volleyball games, 889 00:43:57,267 --> 00:43:59,503 'cause that's where Keith's gonna be. 890 00:43:59,603 --> 00:44:02,706 At the volleyball game, Raniere was the person of power. 891 00:44:02,806 --> 00:44:04,241 He's the king. 892 00:44:04,341 --> 00:44:06,343 He gets to sit there like the fat lion in the-- 893 00:44:06,443 --> 00:44:07,878 you know, in the jungle. 894 00:44:07,978 --> 00:44:10,047 At the end of the day, it was his world, 895 00:44:10,147 --> 00:44:12,349 and they were all gonna live in it 896 00:44:12,449 --> 00:44:14,718 whether they liked it or not. 897 00:44:14,818 --> 00:44:17,988 The article starts raising a lot of red flags. 898 00:44:18,088 --> 00:44:22,526 Maybe this group that so many people have been a part of... 899 00:44:22,626 --> 00:44:24,395 maybe it's a cult. 900 00:44:25,963 --> 00:44:28,899 [Robert] Edgar Bronfman's quoted where he says, 901 00:44:28,999 --> 00:44:30,501 "I think it's a cult." 902 00:44:30,601 --> 00:44:34,304 And that statement absolutely infuriated Keith Raniere. 903 00:44:37,908 --> 00:44:39,376 [Narrator] But the most damaging attacks 904 00:44:39,476 --> 00:44:41,679 target the validity of the company's classes 905 00:44:41,779 --> 00:44:44,281 and methodology. 906 00:44:44,381 --> 00:44:47,651 There's very little time to talk to your loved ones. 907 00:44:47,751 --> 00:44:50,554 There's very little time to eat enough food, 908 00:44:50,654 --> 00:44:52,923 let alone, you know, use the bathroom. 909 00:44:53,023 --> 00:44:56,527 It isolates the students from a husband or a loved one. 910 00:44:56,627 --> 00:44:58,896 Calling them and saying, I haven't heard from you all day. 911 00:44:58,996 --> 00:45:01,298 Are you okay? Is this a cult? 912 00:45:01,398 --> 00:45:03,200 Oh, no, no, no, it's not a cult, it's not a cult. 913 00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:04,735 We're just really, really busy, you know? 914 00:45:04,835 --> 00:45:07,771 We're just so busy.

• From This Boy's Life: A Memoir (1989)

  I heard Pearl try to soothe her, then my mother joined them and I heard her voice too, lower than Pearl’s, the two of them speaking sometimes in turn and sometimes together so that their voices formed one murmurous braid of sound. Skipper shifted in his bed but slept on, and in time, as Norma’s keening subsided, I lay back and went to sleep myself. KENNETH PULLED UP the next afternoon and by dinnertime we all hated him. He knew it, and relished it, even sought it out. As soon as he stepped out of his Austin Healey, he started complaining about the remoteness of the camp and the discomfort of the drive and the imprecision of the directions Norma had left behind for him. He had a fussy, aggrieved voice and thin disappointed lips. He wore a golf cap and perforated leather gloves that snapped across the wrist. He removed one of his gloves as he complained, tugging delicately at each finger, then going on to the next until the glove came free. He took off the other just as slowly and carefully, then turned to Norma. “Don’t I get a kiss?” She bent forward to peck him on the cheek but he seized her face between his hands and kissed her long and full on the lips. It was obvious that he was French-kissing her. We stood watching this and smiling the same foolish smiles we had brought outside to welcome him with. After Kenneth had wolfed down a sandwich, Dwight made the mistake of offering him a drink. “Oh, boy,” Kenneth said. “I guess you don’t know much about me.” He said that he believed he had a duty to lay his cards on the table, and so he did. “I don’t know,” Dwight said. “I don’t see the harm in a drink now and then.” “I’m sure you don’t,” Kenneth said. “I’m sure the drug fiend doesn’t see the harm in a needle now and then.” This led to an exchange of words. My mother stepped in and acted jolly and moved us from the kitchen into the living room, where she must have hoped that the presence of the tree and the gifts would remind us why we were together, and call us to our better selves. But Kenneth started laying more cards on the table. There truly was no end of them. Skipper finally said, “Look, Kenneth . . . why don’t you lay off?” “What are you afraid of, Skipper?” “Afraid?” Skipper’s eyelids fluttered as if he were trying to confirm some improbable image. “I only tell you this because I love you,” Kenneth said, “but you are very frightened people. Very frightened. But hey, there’s no need to be—the news is good!” “Just who the hell do you think you are?” Dwight said. Kenneth smiled. “Go on. I can take it.” Norma tried to change the subject but Kenneth could take any comment and find something in it to deplore.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  JEROME. The Lord had commanded, that for the maintenance of the Priests and Levites, whose portion was the Lord, tithes of every thing should be offered in the temple. Accordingly, the Pharisees (to dismiss mystical expositions) concerned themselves about this alone, that these trifling things should be paid in, but lightly esteemed other things which were weighty. He charges them then with covetousness in exacting carefully the tithes of worthless herbs, while they neglected justice in their transactions of business, mercy to the poor, and faith toward God, which are weighty things. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Or, because these covetous Priests, when any one did not bring his tithes of the smallest thing, made it a matter of grave reprehension; but when one injured his neighbour or sinned against God, they were at no pains to reprove him, careful only of their own profit, neglecting the glory of God, and the salvation of men. For to observe righteousness, to do mercy, and to have faith, these things God commanded for His own glory; but the payment of tithes He established for the support of the Priests, so that the Priests should minister to the people in spiritual things, and the people supply the Priests with carnal things. Thus is it at this time, when all are careful of their own honour, none of God’s honour; they jealously protect their own rights, but will not bestow any pains in the service of the Church. If the people pay not their tithes duly, they murmur; but if they see the people in sin, they utter not a word against them. But because some of the Scribes and Pharisees, to whom He is now speaking, were of the people, it is not unsuitable to make a different interpretation; and ‘to tithe’ may be used as well of him who pays, as of him who receives, tithes. The Scribes then and Pharisees offered tithes of the very best things for the purpose of displaying their righteousness; but in their judgments they were unjust, without mercy for their brethren, without faith for the truth. ORIGEN. But because it was possible that some, hearing the Lord speak thus, might thereupon neglect paying tithes of small things, He prudently adds, These things ought ye to have done, (i. e. justice, mercy, and faith,) and not to leave the others undone, i. e. the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin. REMIGIUS. In these words the Lord shews that all the commandments of the Law, greatest and least, are to be fulfilled. They also are refuted who give alms of the fruits of the earth, supposing that thus they cannot sin, whereas their alms profit them nothing unless they are careful to keep themselves from sin. HILARY. And because it was much less guilt to omit the tithing of herbs than a duty of benevolence, the Lord derides them, Ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  The main point for our purposes is that Judaean law and tradition are still not explicit issues, even in this long and varied letter. Paul cites a few careful y chosen scriptural proof-texts,53 though these scattered passages, like his quotations of Jesus’ sayings and other texts (2:9; 15:32–33), serve his arguments about being “in Christ” and do not resemble midrash, or an attempt to find deeper meaning in scripture as such. They have nothing to do with faithful y living by Torah. If we ask why he includes flashes of scripture at al , or what they might mean to his mainly non-Judaean assembly (12:2), a simple explanation might be that his Judaean rivals had made a great deal of Torah in their teaching, and he felt the need to show that he too could use it, in keeping with his Announcement. Paul also mentions Judaean holidays that he is observing (16:8). His reference to Passover (5:7) suggests that he shares this major Judaean holiday with his followers. But this might reflect larger Christian practice, in commemorating Christ’s death and resurrection at Passover time. We do not know. We must remember that the ancient world knew no default or fal back, secular calendar, as we have today. The Judaean calendar was the one in which Paul had been raised. He could not simply abandon it and still have a way of reckoning time. To reject it, he would have had to adopt the calendar of another polis, embracing the sacred festivals and sacrifices of Ephesus, Corinth, or Rome. Why would he do that, especial y if he understood Christ’s significance from Judaean foundations now supplanted? Just as many ex-Christians still celebrate Christmas and Easter, in some sense, it is not difficult to imagine that the Judaean Paul continued to pattern his life by the calendar in which he was raised, even though he declared Moses’ law obsolete. Real life is not an academic seminar or exercise in pure logic. In Paul’s remaining principal letters to groups he has established, this question of Paul’s attitude toward Moses’ laws becomes ever more prominent, forced onto center stage by these conflicts with others. From Phil 3:2–21 it appears that someone is telling his Christ-followers that they must observe Judaean nomoi. In response, Paul makes it 53 E.g., 1 Cor 1:19, 31 (omitting the reference to knowledge from Jer 9:23); 9:9; 10:1–8, 26; 14:2; 15:54–55. 32 32 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles clear as can be that he considers his Judaean past less than worthless now, “on account of the better possession of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord.” He excoriates the

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  PSEUDO-JEROME. But Pharisaical tradition, as to tables and vessels, is to be cut off, and cast away. For they often make the commands of God yield to the traditions of men; wherefore it continues, For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold to the traditions of men, as the washing of pots and cups. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. (Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) Moreover, to convict them of neglecting the reverence due to God, for the sake of the tradition of the elders, which was opposed to the Holy Scriptures, He subjoins, For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death. (Exod. 21:17.) BEDE. (ubi sup.) The sense of the word honour in Scripture is not so much the saluting and paying court to men, as alms-giving, and bestowing gifts; honour, says the Apostle, widows who are widows indeed. (1 Tim. 5:3.) PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. (Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) Notwithstanding the existence of such a divine law, and the1 threats against such as break it, ye lightly transgress the commandment of God, observing the traditions of the Elders. Wherefore there follows, But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; understand, he will be freed from the observation of the foregoing command. Wherefore it continues, And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother. THEOPHYLACT. For the Pharisees, wishing to devour the offerings, instructed sons, when their parents asked for some of their property, to answer them, what thou hast asked of me is corban, that is, a gift, I have already offered it up to the Lord; thus the parents would not require it, as being offered up to the Lord,z (and in that way profitable for their own salvation). Thus they deceived the sons into neglecting their parents, whilst they themselves devoured the offerings; with this therefore the Lord reproaches them, as transgressing the law of God for the sake of gain. Wherefore it goes on, Making the word of God of none effect through your traditions, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye; transgressing, that is, the commands of God, that ye may observe the traditions of men. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. (Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) Or else it may be said, that the Pharisees taught young persons, that if a man offered a gift in expiation of the injury done to his father or mother, he was free from sin, as having given to God the gifts which are owed to a parent; and in saying this, they did not allow parents to be honoured.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  959 00:47:13,063 --> 00:47:16,533 and application of compassionate ethics. 960 00:47:16,633 --> 00:47:18,869 [Tabitha] They had invited some world leaders 961 00:47:18,969 --> 00:47:21,038 to this, uh, consortium, where people were 962 00:47:21,138 --> 00:47:24,541 sitting around and brainstorming all these big, powerful ideas. 963 00:47:24,641 --> 00:47:27,811 The tickets were $1,000 for, like, two days. 964 00:47:27,911 --> 00:47:31,515 It's...absurd, right? 965 00:47:31,615 --> 00:47:35,919 They're trying to make it look like NXIVM is a good, 966 00:47:36,019 --> 00:47:38,288 philanthropic organization. 967 00:47:38,388 --> 00:47:39,823 They're not the only people that do this. 968 00:47:39,923 --> 00:47:41,091 Scientology does this too. 969 00:47:41,191 --> 00:47:43,227 They have an entire arm of people 970 00:47:43,327 --> 00:47:46,163 who go to third world countries and-- 971 00:47:46,263 --> 00:47:49,132 and try and build dams or hand out water bottles. 972 00:47:49,233 --> 00:47:50,601 And they then turn around and say, 973 00:47:50,701 --> 00:47:52,169 see, Scientology is good. 974 00:47:52,269 --> 00:47:54,938 This is how we're clearing the planet. 975 00:47:55,038 --> 00:47:56,640 [Narrator] Raniere knows the more credibility 976 00:47:56,740 --> 00:47:58,175 he gains for the summit, 977 00:47:58,275 --> 00:48:00,978 the more credibility he'll gain for NXIVM. 978 00:48:01,078 --> 00:48:02,312 So he courts one of the world's 979 00:48:02,412 --> 00:48:06,016 most famous religious leaders to attend. 980 00:48:06,116 --> 00:48:08,585 [Tabitha] They were organizing a visit from 981 00:48:08,685 --> 00:48:10,554 His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 982 00:48:10,654 --> 00:48:12,189 And he had agreed to come. 983 00:48:12,289 --> 00:48:16,159 And then at some point, he had heard news or got news 984 00:48:16,260 --> 00:48:20,130 that NXIVM was a cult, so he backed out of it. 985 00:48:23,267 --> 00:48:27,604 After that, Nancy, Sara, and Keith, 986 00:48:27,704 --> 00:48:29,039 who never traveled anywhere, 987 00:48:29,139 --> 00:48:32,743 got on their private plane and went to visit 988 00:48:32,843 --> 00:48:36,146 His Holiness the Dalai Lama in person. 989 00:48:36,246 --> 00:48:38,282 And whatever agreement they made, 990 00:48:38,382 --> 00:48:41,118 he decided that he was gonna come back. 991 00:48:41,218 --> 00:48:43,520 I'm told that they gave him a large donation. 992 00:48:43,620 --> 00:48:47,524 [applause] 993 00:48:50,294 --> 00:48:53,497 [Rick] The Dalai Lama did a lecture in Albany 994 00:48:53,597 --> 00:48:56,300 in which he implied that the media was wrong, 995 00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,402 and that Keith Raniere was good. 996 00:49:04,942 --> 00:49:07,611 [laughter and applause] 997 00:49:07,711 --> 00:49:09,780 And he gave him an award. 998 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:12,182 He put a scarf around his neck. 999 00:49:12,282 --> 00:49:14,651 This is a Nobel Prize winner, 1000 00:49:14,751 --> 00:49:20,157 and he's giving Keith Raniere the appearance of respectability 1001 00:49:20,257 --> 00:49:24,161 by imbuing him with his aura. 1002 00:49:24,261 --> 00:49:28,265 I mean, that's the kind of thing that is so impressive to people. 1003 00:49:28,365 --> 00:49:32,169 Like, wow, he must really be incredible, right? 1004 00:49:32,269 --> 00:49:34,805 This is a huge coup for NXIVM.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  He had a young man’s beard, scraggly and unkempt, a sign of laziness more than devotion, I might have thought. Only his hands marked him out, the fingers long and thin, a scholar’s hands, with the weird sliding grace of someone accustomed to ritual. Or maybe I had this impression because of the way I had seen him raise his hand to a man’s lips earlier in the evening, when the distinguished Bulgarian writer, elderly and reclusive, asked for a blessing before he read. He had become priestly in that moment, he had stood solemnly while the writer pressed his lips to the third joint of the second finger of his right hand, and then he made the sign of the cross over the writer’s bowed head. It had surprised me, it was a gesture I hadn’t seen in years, not made in earnest, not since the year I had played at conversion in graduate school, when I had made it myself or had it made over me at the rail of a church in Boston, where I stood with my arms crossed over my chest, my mouth sealed by my disordered life, as I thought of it then. There was nothing solemn about the priest now. Once he had opened the bottle he made a direct line for D., the youngest American, who from the first had been the object of greatest interest for the Bulgarian men. This was especially true of the priest, whose attentions had gone quickly from charming to comic and then, as they persisted, become disquieting. For most beautiful first, he said, pouring wine into her cup, his English almost nonexistent, and she smiled and looked away, cringing a little. He came around to each of us then, gallant as he filled our cups, though he refused to meet my gaze, as he had all day, my attempts to speak with him defeated by the odd way he spoke Bulgarian, very fast and with a tripping enunciation that made him impossible for me to understand. It was the accent of his region, one of the other Bulgarians said to me, selski aksent , a village accent. But it wasn’t his accent that made him distant with me, I thought, though maybe it was uncharitable of me to assume he shared the views of his colleagues, or some of his colleagues, like the priest who had called, the previous summer, for all decent people to line the route of the Pride parade and throw stones at the queers.

• From Post Office (1971)

  4 Then Joyce wanted to go back to the city. For all the drawbacks, that little town, haircuts or not, beat city life. It was quiet. We had our own house. Joyce fed me well. Plenty of meat. Rich, good, well-cooked meat. I’ll say one thing for that bitch. She could cook. She could cook better than any woman I had ever known. Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly-all else is desperation. But no, she wanted to go. Granny was always climbing her and she was pissed. Me, I rather enjoyed playing the villain. I had made her cousin, the town bully, back down. It had never been done before. On blue jean day everybody in town was supposed to wear blue jeans or get thrown in the lake. I put on my only suit and necktie and slowly, like Billy the Kid, with all eyes on me, I walked slowly through the town, looking in windows, stopping for cigars. I broke that town in half like a wooden match. Later, I met the town doctor in the street. I liked him. He was always high on drugs. I was not a drug man, but in case I had to hide from myself for a few days, I knew I could get anything I wanted from him. “We’ve got to leave,” I told him. “You ought to stay here,” he said, “it’s a good life. Plenty of hunting and fishing. The air’s good. And no pressure. You own this town,” he said. “I know, doc, but she wears the pants.”

• From This Boy's Life: A Memoir (1989)

  I could just make out the sounds of the game going on up the hill, the cheers, the drumming of feet in the stands. I listened with godly condescension. I was all alone where no one could find me, only the faint excitements of a game and some voices crying Concrete, Concrete, Concrete. My brother and I hadn’t seen each other in six years. After leaving Salt Lake I lost touch with him until, in the fall of my second year at Concrete High, he wrote me a letter and sent me a Princeton sweatshirt. The letter was full of impressive phrases—“In a world where contraception and the hydrogen bomb usurp each other as negative values...”—that I tried to use in conversation as if they had just occurred to me. I wore the sweatshirt everywhere, and told strangers who picked me up on the road that I was a Princeton student coming home for a visit. I even had my hair cut in a style called “The Princeton”—flat on top, long and swept back on the sides. I decided to make my way there. My mother was busy campaigning for Senator Jackson and John F. Kennedy. Dwight called Kennedy “the Pope’s candidate” and “the senator from Rome.” He didn’t like him, possibly because of his effect on my mother, who was stirred by Kennedy’s hopefulness and also a little in love with him. With her out of the house so much Dwight had grown casual about pushing me around. He didn’t really beat me but he kept the possibility alive. I hated being alone with him. My idea was to hitchhike to Princeton and hand myself over to Geoffrey. I had no money for the trip. To get it, I planned to forge a check. For some time I had been struck by the innocence of banks, the trusting way they left checkbooks out on the service tables for their customers. People walked in off the street, wrote down their wishes, then walked out again with their pockets full of money. There was nothing to keep me from taking a few blanks to fill out later. I couldn’t cash them in Chinook or Concrete, where I was too familiar to use a false name, but in another town it would be easy. I belonged to the Order of the Arrow, a Scout honor society whose annual banquet was to be held in Bellingham that year. I drove down in the afternoon with some other OA members from my troop, and shook loose from them soon after we arrived. First I went to a bank. Before going inside I put on the horn-rimmed glasses my mother had bought me so I could see the blackboards at school. They made me look owlish, but older. I walked across the bank to one of the tables and tore off a check from the convenience checkbook.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  So we were all working for free. [Rick] In my view, it was at best a Ponzi scheme financially. They thought they were buying into something really positive. They were given, um, very misleading information. They were deceived. It was very much like a bait-and-switch con. [Narrator] NXIVM's reach even extends to Hollywood. There was a very small center in Los Angeles, where the teachings would happen. That's where they'd recruit people from. [Paige] They targeted actors, actresses, musicians, people who are looking for an in into the industry that requires a lot of networking. And so they're like, well, if all of these actors are there, if I join, then I can talk to them, maybe this director is here. It's a way for me to make friends and kind of get to know an inner circle of people. [Narrator] Including Sarah Edmondson from the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica's Nicki Clyne, and Allison Mack, star of the CW series Smallville. [Allison] Kind of leads me to my next question, which has to do with authenticity. You know, authenticity and creativity... are an interesting match. We don't like to think of ourselves as robots, 'cause we're not robots! So what does it mean to be authentic? Someone's authentic, you feel them. You have this--this feeling of a soul there. [Narrator] Raniere and his co-founder, Nancy Salzman, quickly realize the entertainment industry is a goldmine. [Dr. Joseph] Cults typically target people who have resources. They tend to target influential people, because people who have talent, who are attractive, you know, they can recruit a lot of members. [Paige] It's exactly what Scientology did with Tom Cruise and John Travolta. They knew that that was going to be essentially valuable currency for them in trying to navigate getting new members. [Dr. Marie] There's a concept called social proof. When you see other people basically... endorsing the program or being a part of it, you let down some of your critical thinking, and you--you think, this has gotta be okay. Look, there are celebrities involved, there are very, very smart people involved. And if they're involved, I wanna be part of the cool group. [Narrator] The influx of new members and its growing credibility within the celebrity class allows NXIVM to grow beyond Albany, New York. They expanded centers throughout North America into Vancouver, Canada, Mexico, around the United States. [Paige] Actors, actresses, famous political figures in Mexico. They're giving him millions of dollars, millions and millions and millions, to pay their way up, to get different color sashes, to go from white to green to orange to whatever. And it's all going straight into his pocket. [Narrator] NXIVM's leader, Keith Raniere. He was this leader who had created this curriculum that was changing people's lives. He was amazingly smart and had the answers to everything. And everybody revered him. He would come in the evenings sometimes to--to the auditorium, and he would speak to us.

• From Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002)

  Let us now compare these definitions with the word “white.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language links the word “white” with: unsullied; pure. According to the Webster's New World College Dictionary , “white” also means: morally or spiritually pure; spotless; innocent; free from evil intent; harmless; honest; honorable; fair; decent. Roget's Super Thesaurus contrasts “white” as the antonym for “black” and defines it as: sunny; bright; illuminated; cheerful; hopeful; auspicious; favorable; good; angelic; saintly. In short, our culture has linked the word and color “black” with negative definitions and “white” with positive definitions. This is evident in the old TV westerns where the good guys were distinguished from the bad by the color of their hats. These definitions given to the words “black” and “white” reveal our culture's attitudes toward these colors—attitudes formed within a society that has historically used color to define one's place in the overall community. The lighter the skin pigmentation, the greater the availability of opportunities. By defining “black” and “white” in this fashion, the purity of whiteness and the wickedness of blackness are transferred to the society at large. Rather than confess that the inequalities of society are due to racist social structures, religion (as well as other communal networks) provides the psychological reassurance of legitimacy; in other words, it confirms that the wealth, power, and privilege amassed by the members of the dominant culture are theirs by right. When whites compare their social status with the less privileged space of nonwhites, they fail to merely be content with their success. They desire “the right to their happiness.”1 In the minds of those within the dominant culture, people on the margins are predominantly poor and disenfranchised not as a direct result of the Euroamericans’ privileged space but because of the character flaws of nonwhites, flaws that are reinforced by how the terms “white” and “black” are defined. The plight of the poor, trapped in the ghettos and barrios of this wealthy nation, is due to the inferiority associated with their darker skin pigmentation. The victims of poverty are blamed for their own social location; this exonerates the privileged, whose secured social space is dependent upon maintaining a reserve army of undereducated, underskilled laborers. Blackness becomes the color of all that is wrong with America: laziness, poverty, the welfare state, and sin. Is it any wonder then that when a black man approaches our car, we quickly lock the doors? Or when a black man walks by us, we clutch our purses and hold them closer to our body? After all, by definition a wicked, evil, dirty, satanic man is approaching, and hence our safety and possessions are threatened. Have you noticed that we never refer to a poor person of color as “black trash” because, by definition, using the words “black” and “trash” together is redundant? Yet we refer to poor whites as “white trash” because “white,” by definition, is pure and spotless; hence the phrase discloses the internal incongruence of the term.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  ORIGEN. And in the Church of Christ are found some who take to themselves the uppermost places, that is, become deacons; next they aspire to the chief seats of those that are called presbyters; and some intrigue to be styled among men Bishop, that is, to be called Rabbi. But Christ’s disciple loves the uppermost place indeed, but at the spiritual banquet, where he may feed on the choicer morsels of spiritual food, for, with the Apostles who sit upon twelve thrones, he loves the chief seats, and hastes by his good works to render himself worthy of such seats; and he also loves salutations made in the heavenly market-place, that is, in the heavenly congregations of the primitive. But the righteous man would be called Rabbi, neither by man, nor by any other, because there is One Master of all men. CHRYSOSTOM. Or otherwise; Of the foregoing things with which He had charged the Pharisees, He now passes over many as of no weight, and such as His disciples needed not to be instructed in; but that which was the cause of all evils, namely, ambition of the master’s seat, that He insists upon to instruct His disciples. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Be not ye called Rabbi, that ye take not to yourselves what belongs to God. And call not others Rabbi, that ye pay not to men a divine honour. For One is the Master of all, who instructs all men by nature. For if man were taught by man, all men would learn that have teachers; but seeing it is not man that teaches, but God, many are taught, but few learn. Man cannot by teaching impart an understanding to man, but that understanding which is given by God man calls forth HILARY. And that the disciples may ever remember that they are the children of one parent, and that by their new birth they have passed the limits of their earthly origin. JEROME. (cont. Helvid. 15.) All men may be called brethren in affection, which is of two kinds, general and particular. Particular, by which all Christians are brethren; general, by which all men being born of one Father are bound together by like tie of kindred. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. And call no man your Father upon earth; because in this world though man begets man, yet there is one Father who created all men. For we have not beginning of life from our parents, but we have our life transmitted through them.a ORIGEN. But who calls no man father upon earth? He who in every action done as before God, says, Our Father, which art in Heaven. GLOSS. (non occ.) Because it was clear who was the Father of all, by this which was said, Which art in Heaven, He would teach them who was the Master of all, and therefore repeats the same command concerning a master, Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Or otherwise; Whenever God will try His Church, He enters into it that He may see the guests; and if He finds any one not having on the wedding garment, He enquires of him, How then were you made a Christian, if you neglect these works? Such a one Christ gives over to His ministers, that is, to seducing leaders, who bind his hands, that is, his works, and his feet, that is, the motions of his mind, and cast him into darkness, that is, into the errors of the Gentiles or the Jews, or into heresy. The nigher darkness is that of the Gentiles, for they have never heard the truth which they despise; the outer darkness is that of the Jews, who have heard but do not believe; the outermost is that of the heretics, who have heard and have learned. 22:15–2215. Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 16. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. 17. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not? 18. But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19. Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21. They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. 22. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. As when one seeks to dam a stream of running water, as soon as one outlet is stopped up it makes another channel for itself; so the malevolence of the Jews, foiled on one hand, seeks itself out another course. Then went the Pharisees; went to the Herodians. Such as the plan was, such were the planners; They send unto Him their disciples with the Herodians. GLOSS. (ord.) Who as unknown to Him, were more likely to ensnare Him, and so through them they might take Him, which they feared to do of themselves because of the populace.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  After that, everything just started falling apart, like a domino effect. [Narrator] The FBI raid the home of Raniere's cofounder Nancy Salzman and arrest her as well. [Robert] In Nancy Salzman's basement, there is boxes with files of information on the enemies of NXIVM. That includes six federal judges, the editor of the Times Union , reporters at the Times Union, Rick Ross, the cult tracker, and Edgar Bronfman. [Paige] Some of the inner circle is either arrested or about to be. People know who they are. [Narrator] Including Raniere's most trusted lieutenant, Allison Mack. Allison Mack was a master to many different slaves she tricked into joining DOS under the guise of it being a sorority that was supposed to help people. [Armando] And these slaves, they're just pawns in a game. After Keith gets arrested, people leave in droves. I mean, no one wants to be connected to NXIVM anymore. [Paige] And the only one kind of left in charge is Clare Bronfman. [Narrator] As Keith Raniere's trial slowly approaches, some doubt prosecutors will make a convincing case against him. After all, he's skirted justice before. Who's victim, who's perpetrator, which is always... a difficult question when it comes to cults, because technically, all of them are victims of Keith, to some degree. But at what point do you stop being a victim and become a perpetrator? [Narrator] Not since Charles Manson and his Family stood trial in 1971 for their heinous crimes has a cult and its leader been held so publicly accountable for their actions. Will Raniere and his acolytes face the same fate? [Narrator] On May 4, 2018, Keith Raniere appears in federal court in Brooklyn and pleads not guilty to all charges. Raniere's attorney asks for a $10 million bond for his release pending trial. But the judge, knowing Raneire has deep pockets in the Bronfman sisters, orders him held without bail. While Raniere awaits his day in court, his most loyal confidantes begin to fall. On March 12, 2019, NXIVM cofounder Nancy Salzman pleads guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy for harassing and surveilling critics and former members of NXIVM. [Robert] The sentencing of Nancy Salzman, they brought up, this is the number two, unquestionable, the mother of all things NXIVM. And she was under tremendous pressure to continue to satisfy Keith Raniere. [Narrator] Salzman is sentenced to three and a half years in prison, fined $150,000, and made to forfeit several properties, as well as more than half a million dollars. One month later, actress Allison Mack also pleads guilty to charges of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy relating to her actions in the DOS sex cult. [Rick] Allison Mack was herself a victim. You talk about drinking the Kool-Aid. I think Allison Mack was swimming in the Kool-Aid. She was probably his most devoted follower.

• From Momma and the Meaning of Life (1999)

  Lash dictating notes for countertransference seminar. Notes on Myrna, Thursday, 28 March. Typical, predictable, frustrating hour. She spent most of the session whining as usual about the lack of single available men. I get more and more impatient . . . irritable—lost it for a moment and made an inappropriate remark: ‘Do you see “Dating Bureau” on my T-shirt?’ Really hostile thing for me to do—very unlike me—can’t remember last time I’ve been so disrespectful to a patient. Am I trying to drive her away? I never say anything supportive or positive to her. I try, but she makes it hard. She gets to me . . . so boring, rasping, crass, narrow. All she ever thinks about is making her two million in stock options and finding a man. Nothing else . . . narrow, narrow, narrow . . . no dreams, no fantasies, no imagination. No depth. Has she ever read a good novel? Ever said something beautiful? Or interesting . . . just one interesting thought? God, I’d love to see her write a poem—or try to write a poem. Now, that would be therapeutic change. She drains me. I feel like a big tit. Over and over the same material. Over and over hitting me over the head about my fee. Week after week I end up doing the same thing—I bore myself. “Today, as usual, I urged her to examine her role in her predicament, how she contributes to her own isolation. It’s not such a difficult concept, but I might as well be speaking Aramaic. She just can’t get it. Instead she accuses me of not believing that the singles scene is bad for women. And then, as she often does, she threw in a crack about wishing she could date me. But when I try to focus on that, on how she feels toward me or how she makes herself lonely right here in this room with me, things get even worse. She refuses to get it; she will not relate to me, and she will not acknowledge that she doesn’t—and insists it’s not relevant anyway. She can’t be stupid. Wellesley graduate—high-level graphics work—huge salary, hell of a lot bigger than mine—half the software companies in Silicon Valley competing for her—but I feel I’m talking to a dumb person. How many goddamn times do I have to explain why it’s important to look at our relationship? And all those cracks about not getting her money’s worth—I feel demeaned. She is a vulgar lady. Does everything possible to eliminate any shred of closeness between us. Nothing I do is good enough for her. Presses so many—” A passing car’s honk roused her to the fact that her car was weaving. Myrna’s heart pounded. This was dangerous. She switched off the Walkman and drove the few minutes to her turnoff.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  THEOPHYLACT. Now Matthew seems to relate the parable differently; that when our Saviour asked indeed, What will he do then to the husbandmen? the Jews answered, he will miserably destroy them. But there is no difference between the two circumstances. The Jews at first pronounced that opinion, then perceiving the point of the parable said, God forbid, as Luke here relates. AUGUSTINE. (de con. Ev. lib. iv. cap. 70.) Or else, in the multitude of which we are speaking there were those who craftily asked our Lord by what authority He acted; there were those also who not craftily, but faithfully, cried aloud, Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. And so there would be some who would say, He will miserably destroy those husbandmen, and let out his vineyard to others. Which are rightly said to have been the words of our Lord Himself, either on account of their truth, or because of the unity of the members with the head; while there would be others also who would say to those who made this answer, God forbid, inasmuch as they understood the parable was spoken against themselves. It follows, And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? BEDE. As if He said, How shall the prophecy be fulfilled, except that Christ, being rejected and slain by you, is to be preached to the Gentiles, who will believe on Him, that as the corner stone He may thus from both nations build up one temple to Himself? EUSEBIUS. Christ is called a stone on account of His earthly body, cut out without hands, (Dan. 2:34.) as in the vision of Daniel, because of His birth of the Virgin. But the stone is neither of silver nor gold, because He is not any glorious King, but a man lowly and despised, wherefore the builders rejected Him. THEOPHYLACT. For the rulers of the people rejected Him, when they said, This man is not of God. (John 9:16.) But He was so useful and so precious, that He was placed as the head stone of the corner. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. But holy Scripture compares to a corner the meeting together of the two nations, the Jew and the Gentile, into one faith. (1 Pet. 2:7. Eph. 2:20.) For the Saviour has compacted both peoples into one new man, reconciling them in one body to the Father. Of saving help then is that stone to the corner made by it, but to the Jews who resist this spiritual union, it bringeth destruction.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  CHRYSOSTOM. He said this with a design to draw from Him some indefensible answer which might be made a snare for Him. But Jesus held his peace, for defence had availed nothing when none would listen to it. For here was only a mockery of justice, it was in truth nothing more than the anarchy of a den of robbers. ORIGEN. This place teaches us to contemn the clamours of slanderers and false witnesses, and not to consider those who speak unbeseeming things of us worthy of an answer; but then, above all, when it is greater to be manfully and resolutely silent, than to plead our cause in vain. JEROME. For as God, He knew that whatever He said would be twisted into an accusation against Him. But at this His silence before false witnesses and ungodly Priests, the High Priest was exasperated, and summons Him to answer, that from anything He says he may raise a charge against Him.