Charles Manson Was Right About A Few Things

For those who don’t know who Charles Manson was a criminal, major racist, and cult leader in the 1960s. The cult was named the “Manson Family” which consisted of around 50 members who lived hippie lifestyles, indulged in drugs, spent time rummaging through garbage cans for free food, and had 10 rules of the clan. For example;

1. Members were forced to drink breast milk.

2. Women had to serve men food and have a thin physique.

3. Beatings are punishment was allowed.

4. All women were to have sex with Charles and participate in orgies.

Don’t get me wrong, Charles Manson and his cult did some awful things including the murder of Sharon Tate — a famous pregnant American actress at the time. However, I have just finished watching a movie called Charlie Says on Amazon Prime and it was absolutely fantastic. At the time I watched it, it was free but unfortunately, it now costs £10.99. They must have had a huge influx of viewings!

Whilst watching the movie, there are a few rules of the Manson Family I noticed which I thought were actually a good shout.

Self Love

Near the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where Charles makes a new clan member take of all her clothes and show her family members her scars on her back which had parents had caused. At first, this scene is uncomfortable but Charles preaches about how it’s mandatory to love yourself and your body regardless of scars and past trauma.

The theme of self-love is present throughout the entire movie which I think is fantastic. Why would you not agree? The majority of clan members had an abundance of past trauma so I can see why they appealed to Charles in that respect.

The Time is Now

One of the ten mandatory rules in the Manson Family was to destroy anything that had the date and the time on it. Anything gadget that told the time — such as watches and clocks — was completely banned. Why? Because the time is now.

There is a scene in the movie where some of the family members are eating dinner together and Charlie asks one of the new members — Lulu — for the time. She couldn't tell him the time because there are no watches or clocks available. Charlie says that that’s a good thing and that the date and time doesn’t matter as we all need to be present and one in the here and now.

In today’s society, we feel that time is not on our side and we consistently feel pressured under time. Pressure to get to work on time, pressure to keep track of time, we even keep track of how long we have been in relationships. None of this is good and Charles believed that time was a major societal construct.

Even though the guy was delusional, the conspiracy that time isn’t actually real has been going on for years and years. It is believed that time is a human construct that we created in order to help ourselves, but have we just gone and self-sabotaged?

Norms are Useless

If there was anything Charles disliked it was mainstream society. The clan did things their own way — or his way — and had their own miniature society.

Charles believed that societal norms were only there to cater to the rich. He was very aware that the rich created, changed, and made up societal norms as they saw fit and that did not resonate well with him at all.

Guess what, it doesn’t actually resonate well with any of us. We all know that the rich are the ones in power, regardless of what the government portrays and implement, money talks very loudly.

Over the past few years, many recent cultural shifts have taken place such as the Extinction Rebellion movement, Black Lives Matter, LQBTQ+, and society in general is not afraid to challenge and call out what they feel is wrong.

Norms are indeed useless and are being broken down and challenged every day. I for one are pretty happy to see this.

Don’t get me wrong, due to the extremely heavy LSD dosage all family members were off their cracker 24/7. However, with the three themes above I do believe they were onto something as I feel these themes are commonly present in today’s society.

Charles Manson died in prison aged 83 in 2017. With many other members being arrested and imprisoned, we do not actually know the daily ongoings of the clan because we were not there. It does not matter what they admit or confess to, if we weren’t there we will never truly know.