The New Acropolis Sect

Posing as cultural associations, groups like New Acropolis seek to estrange their members into activities that could well be classified as sectarian Coffee Chats and Tapalpa A T THE BEGINNING seemed like a good idea. Going to the Tapalpa mountains and practicing extreme sports. Why not? Besides, during the night there was time for reflection on the activities carried out during the day. Wow, that’s brain and muscle! And to top it off, the group offered Saturday afternoon coffee conversations in a well-known establishment on Vallarta Avenue, just in time to attend, chat a while, and then go to the movies or wherever was needed. "I liked the fact of going to talk about something that wasn’t swallowing people, honestly," confesses Lulú (whose name I have changed here) and who joined New Acropolis activities for a time. So then, until now, what could be wrong? Authoritarian esotericism Perhaps one could object to the naïve topics of conversation that were often handled in the debates, such as Atlantis, astrology, alchemy, along with the “power of a smile.” But well, after all in this life one must be tolerant; no one has the monopoly on truth, right? Or perhaps (more importantly) the way members acquired a harsh character as soon as for one reason or another one could not attend their meetings; the way they wanted to trick you into taking a "self-knowledge" workshop that would last three months, but that by six months made no sense at all, and where they intend to make us gulp the ramblings of Madame Blavatsky, founder of a quasi-syncretic religion called Theosophy; or that soon one was obliged to distribute flyers (just as parodied in the film by Alex de la Iglesia, The Day of the Beast ) and do nothing else for the rest of the day. It was precisely through leafleting that Lulú in particular began to attend New Acropolis coffee talks. Could this? Become this? The sect According to a report provided by the French National Assembly, New Acropolis is a sect with clear far-right tendencies, and paramilitary tastes. Regardless of the numerous reports of this kind, it is possible to spend years orbiting the group without seeing any of this, because such secrets are revealed only to those who are more readily open to manipulation by the leaders and show fewer reproaches and criticisms to the numerous tasks that they will impose. According to the " Leader’s Manual" of New Acropolis : "The propaganda must not frighten nor produce an excessive impact, at risk of being considered suspicious and rejected. An apparently innocent invitation to follow courses and lectures is more advantageous than the violent display of mysterious symbols or enigmatic sentences... propaganda must offer a welcoming image of personal convenience, without revealing that one is being called to change their life and burdened with enormous sacrifices and efforts. Once inside they understand us better and consider these sacrifices as honors, but before, they scare people" So recruitment takes place with excursions, coffee talks, conferences and workshops, where, posing as a cultural association, they acquire new bodies for their ends. The indoctrination Indoctrination is gradual and slowly takes over the life of the newly admitted. First there are the coffee talks, then one will be invited to the "self-discovery" course where immediately a task will be given for the group, making it clear that with it one will gain even more admiration and acceptance from everyone: "They began to do activity, after activity, after activity, where in the end nothing was really done, but you had to be there (...)" remembers Lulú "After leaving work the thing was to go there, leave at ten, eleven, eleven-thirty if we were lucky, and then Saturday all day, Sunday all day..." The tasks consisted of organizing plays, carrying out a film workshop (where the content of the films is adapted to the acropolitan tendency), etc. Slowly the friends and family of the individual will witness how they drift away from everything and everyone, imbued in that totalitarian acropolitanism. Lulú admits that she began to become disillusioned by the lack of quality of the classes. This lack of quality seems to be characteristic of the Guadalajara chapter, although "it didn’t matter much, because I wasn’t going to learn the philosophy of the world there; I wasn’t expecting a course from an institution in a house, where it has three students, to give you very high-quality philosophy classes..." Jorge Angel Livraga Rizzi or "The Emperor," as he called himself Is it dangerous? Generally the critics of this association claim that it is too insignificant to pose a danger, but perhaps just for that reason. Knowing that in 1985 the journalist Pepe Rodríguez warned in an article about New Acropolis about the armament that, at least then in Spain, was stored in the quarters of this sect, I decided to contact him about this matter. "The Spanish government did nothing against N.A., nor against any other sect, what has been done in Spain is all the work of individuals," he replied to me in an email. "The investigation and the initiation of the judicial process that led to Livraga’s [founder of New Acropolis] conviction for illegal possession of weapons was only my work, from the police I only received problems and no help. Anyway..." As things went on, the journalist asserts that he was threatened by New Acropolis, which is why he had to resort to legal instances and a trial was initiated against Ángel Livraga. "The trial against Livraga and his bodyguard was held on June 13, 1988 in the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Madrid," Rodríguez continues in his email. "The process I initiated against them is the investigative file number 10/87 CP of the Examining Court 23 of Madrid. The conviction is sentence 203 of the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Madrid, dated 15-6-1988 (…) verbatim: The Chamber agrees by majority to condemn the defendant Jorge Angel Livraga Rizzi as the author of the crime of illegal possession of weapons, without the concurrence of mitigating circumstances of criminal responsibility, to the penalty of six months and one day of minor imprisonment, with its accessories of suspension from public office and the right to vote during the time of the sentence, and to the payment of the legal costs. For the fulfillment of the sentence all the time of pretrial detention suffered for this cause is credited to him And the chamber approves the insolvency order consulted at the time by the Examining Judge At least among the lower ranks in Guadalajara, Livraga’s fondness for wearing military uniforms is seen as a harmless eccentricity, and they do not accept that they are imbued in a sect. One of the local leaders assured that none of that was true. However, it is very difficult to refute the accusations when the group does not stand out for its transparency. The whole affair is nothing short of regrettable. Many young people are hungry for means where they can express their tastes, interests and concerns, without ending up exploited, or having their life monopolized by an organization of the type of New Acropolis Other links that may interest you: Social networks on the Internet Video addicts May 21, 2011 day of the end of the world