Dear Anonymous
Ah, this is lovely. The height of good parenting is always, of course, the parent who has their own child kidnapped by total strangers in the dead of night, thrown into a van, and carted off to the middle of fucking nowhere. Cuz that's not traumatic or anything. That certainly won't add to whatever problems the kid might already have to begin with. Not that the kid really needs problems to get shipped off to one of these godforsaken hellholes. There've been plenty of testimonies of kids who were sent their for calling their mom a bitch or for not accepting the parents' religion. The "behavior modification" industry is booming and filled with people who enjoy hurting kids. I mean, seriously, if I had a hard-on for making kids' lives miserable, this is EXACTLY the profession I'd go into. Where else can you snatch a kid from their bed in the middle of the night and high-five their parents on the way out the door?! If I were a complete pervert or just a fucking douchebag asshole, it'd be the perfect job for me. It certainly isn't somewhere that anyone would work who actually CARES for kids and their well-being. Kinda setting the whole system up for disaster right there, eh?
You are right to be worried about your friend and probably just as right that there's nothing he can do. At least, nothing legitimate. Though, to be honest, I think he'd stand a better chance by killing one of the fuckers than be letting himself be taken. In court, he'd have a pretty good case for self-defense. After all, if I were suddenly grabbed from my bed and someone was restraining and attempting to abduct me, it would be perfectly reasonable that I should try to kill them! ANYONE would do the same! That's where this "take them without their knowledge" shit can really backfire on these guys. If any of the abductors ever got seriously injured or killed, the kid would go to trial and a court system would not look kindly on the abductors, I don't believe. It's hard to argue against self-defense when you snatch somebody from their bed in the dead of night against their will.
Sadly, I have no advice for your friend for avoiding the boot camp. I have some advice on surviving it though. Your friend should bone up on his acting skills. He can say whatever he wants, pretend to be whoever they want him to be. Contrary to the espousal of a million bad action flicks, you're not "betraying yourself" or your beliefs when you do what needs to be done to survive. William Wallace wasn't brave for screaming "FREEDOOOOOOMMMMM!" instead of crying out for mercy, he was a goddamn twit. Captain Picard wasn't badass for refusing to tell the Cardassian that he did, in fact, totally see 5 lights up there, he was a stubborn ass. I'd have been like "Yeah, sure guy, 5 lights, right there, I see 'em too. Awesome, eh?" In Wallace's place, I'd have been like "yeah sure, Longshanks is totally my king and I'm like SO FUCKING SORRY for being a traitor and all that. Totally. Can I have my quick and painless death now and skip all that torture crap? Oh, I can? Bitchin!" Movies and TV have given people this stupid idea that if you tell them what they want to hear, then you're "broken" and you lose. Bullshit! If you tell your captors what they wanna hear so that they'll fuck off and leave you alone, you get to go free one day and say to yourself "Fuck, I totally played those morons. They thought they broke me and had me eating out of the palm of their hands. Fucking Christ, I'm amazing!" You can do that, cuz once you're free, YOU CAN STOP PRETENDING! They've only broken you if you REALLY believe their bullshit. If you PRETEND to resist and then PRETEND to accept their teachings then you can avoid ACTUALLY getting brainwashed!
Your friend should fight at first and then totally pretend to sell himself out. He should cry and talk about how he's such a horrible person and how he wants to change so bad and blah blah blah and then when he gets out, he can giggle to himself and quietly give them all the finger.
There's my advice. Go peacefully into Hell, side with the Devil to his face, and live to fight another day. The 9th Commandment of Lord Galen says that you should never lie unless the truth would bring harm. Well, telling the truth and being honest with a Gulag school will bring great harm, so FUCKING LIE!
All My Hate,
Lord Galen