MLMs and the GOP

I've been looking forward to being able to share my thoughts on a personal experience I had while I was involved in an MLM, known as Quixtar. Some of you may know about this MLM or others very similar to it.

If you don't know anything about Quixtar, it is an MLM very similar to Amway, both of which were formed by Alticor, the parent company. The founders of Alticor, have been some of the largest contributors of election adn campaign money, among other things, to the GOP. Dick DeVos, the son of Richard DeVos, one of the founders, is himself a member of the GOP, and in 2006 ran (and lost) for Governor of Michigan.

In one of the functions that I attended, called "Free Enterprise Weekend", in which hundreds of thousands gather in stadiums to hear the leaders of Quixtar speak. The particular one I attended was in Philadelphia. These weekends are held in order to "educate" the MLM members, otherwise called "Independent Business Owners", of which I was one.

The weekend, however, was not held only to talk about the Quxtar wasy of business, but oddly enough, a guest speaker was invited, a former politician and member of the GOP, no less, to talk about America.

In his speech, he specifically talked about America before and during WWII. He spoke about Adolf Hitler, and how he was allowed to annex countries, while france and other countries idly stood by, and explained why this led to a war that war bigger than it needed to be.

His point (which he did not directly state) was that this same thing is happening, and equated Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler, warning that "If all the IBO's in this colliseum do not make the right choice in the upcoming ellections (then the 2004 elections) then we may just be allowing another dictator to have his way".

Most, if not all, IBOs were caught up in the moment that weekend. Many, including myself, had taken the opporunity to visit museums, I myself was able to see the Liberty Bell, and after hearing such a seemingly patriotic speech, we were all "fired up" (quixtar talk) to make the "right choice" in the upcoming elections.

It is now chilling to me how so many people, and god knows how many more were influenced by persons , whose obvious purpose was to use the trust instilled in large groups of people, in order to more easily shape their opinions.

It is my hope that this helps any of you reading this, who in their back of their minds know there has been an attempt to influence your opinion of things, especially in settings that have nothing to do with politics, i.e. a "business event".