Not so much insane as fanatical, Chris.. I've seen things like this in
real life. A 'true believer' with a child who deviates is CERTAIN that once
they force the child back onto the 'true path' any _unhappiness_ they might
have is temporary, and minor. And that the child WILL be happy,
enventually, and will thank their parent (grandparent, et. cetera) later
for the 'tough love' that forced them back to the 'true way'. In the very
few cases where that did not happen, either the child suicided or escaped,
or deliberately did some so horrendusly offensive to the
religion/culture/belief system/cult that they were either exiled from it,
or killed.

In either case, the parent or guardian responsible for forcing them back
into a way of life they no longer belonged in usually goes through a crisis
of faith themselves, or they attempt to cling all the tighter to their
faith. (ie, something like, 'my daughter may be dead, but she's in heaven
now - that makes her death all right).

Cologne might phrase it differently, but I suspect that should Shampoo
defy her to that point (exile/death), Cologne's utter and total unwavering
belief in the absolute supremacy of the Amazon way of life and her faith in
its laws and culture would lead her to kill Shampoo and try to salve her
pain by telling herself that while Shamp's is dead, the village goes on.

I've seen that happen too. Check your history books. In both Nazi-era
Germany, and Stalin-era Russia, there were true believers in both systems
(yes, there WERE people who honestly believed, hard as that may be to
understand) who turned in friends, family, even wives, husbands, their own
children, or their own parents to the respective secret police.

To steal a quote from Babylon 5.. 'The Corps is MOTHER, the Corps is
FATHER! My LIFE FOR THE CORPS!'

Absolute faith in anything is a powerful tool, an ever MORE powerful
weapon... and incredibly dangerous.

<nod>  Very well stated Ed.  Fanatacism in any form tends to be dangerous.
All the more so when the fanatic is faced with someone they thought believed
as they do turning against them.

Chewing my nails till the next part,
Chris Kelly

Got to agree with you there.. I can't WAIT for HoI 20.

Same here, Arghh, I hate cliff hangers.

BTW Ed, speaking of cliff hangers, did you ever get around to finishing the
second part of the Legion/BGC cross set in the Twisted Path stories?

Ed Becerra

"Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal.."

John W. Conner
Toras@email.msn.com or Connerj@sanchez.com
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                                   Come my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order, smite
The sounding furrows, for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset and the baths
Of all the western stars until I die.
               "Ulysses", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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