Parental abuse outed.

Beyond mildly disturbing… This woman has guts to speak out. Please follow the links to read on.

From: Rebel Heart

Warning: the following post could be a trigger post if you have been a victim of sexual abuse. If you are currently a victim of sexual abuse, you don't have to suffer in silence. Tell a teacher or a trusted friend and get help. If you are a survivor of past abuse, or a current victim, you can get help through the hotline listed on RAINN's webpage here.

My dad in front of the Mesa, Arizona, Mormon Temple. 

"Do you want to press charges against your dad?"

 "No!"

Because what else would a 14 year old say? About her own father? At 14 I was horrified at the idea of having to confront my father in court. I couldn't even conceptualize having a father in prison. My family simply didn't have people in jail. My father wouldn't survive in prison. How would I tell people that I had a dad in prison? How would my mom support five children on her own?

These are the things you think as the oldest at home of five kids, when you are 14 years old, and a cop asks you if you want to press charges against your father for sexually abusing you.

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The Hymn of Axciom

Lyrics:
Somebody hears you. You know that. You know that.
Somebody hears you. you know that inside.
Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to
(Say just the right thing and) show that you're understood.
Here you're known.

Leave your life open. You don't have. You don't have.
Leave your life open. You don't have to hide.
Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these
(Mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot.
Keep them all.

Let our formulas find your soul.
We'll divine your artesian source (in your mind),
marshal feed and force (our machines will) 
To design you a perfect love—
Or (better still) a perfect lust.
O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.

Now we possess you. You'll own that. You'll own that.
Now we possess you. You'll own that in time.
Now we will build you an endlessly upward world,
(Reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you're worth.

Is that wrong?
Isn't this what you want?
Amen.


From USA Today:…

The Hymn of Acxiom is an a cappella choral piece that uses a vocal harmonizer. Sung from the a marketing-tech company's database, it's a beautiful work that gets progressively creepier as it continues.

Teng uses the piece to capture the way people related to technology and the information gathered about them, and there's almost a religious quality to it.

"I think the reason we agree to be spied on, basically, is that, on some level, we do want to be known," she says. "There is that unsettling parallel with religion and the way technology works now. At some level, as human beings, we have this deep need, this deep desire to be understood, to be seen, to have the sense that someone knows everything we do.

"Then there's the question of what that entity does with that knowledge. In religion, the message is that God loves you and embraces you while holding you accountable for being your best self. Whether Axciom databases do that is much more questionable."