Guest View: By A Thoughtful Reader
This is in response to Nicole to Raniere: ‘My Life Meant Nothing to You.’
I’d just like to point out that at the time when Allison Mack recruited Nicole into DOS, Allison was already Keith’s slave – and Allison had collateral hanging over her own head, which was held by Keith and could destroy her reputation.
I’m not sure if Nicole knows this.
I mention it because I take the stuff about Allison loving being a master and having slaves with a MASSIVE grain of salt. I don’t doubt that she claimed to love it.
Even if Allison was walking around with a huge smile all the time, she may have been scared deep down. Not necessarily of Keith Raniere per se, but on some level she knew that if he got angry with her, bad stuff could happen. Abuse messes with peoples’ heads in weird ways. It’s like when someone who has an abusive partner beats them, a common reaction for the victim is to blame themselves, and think “I must have done something wrong that caused this”.
I watched part of India Oxenberg’s documentary, and there’s a scene where Keith asks Allison, “How late are you up tonight?”, and Allison responds almost with a giggle, “As late as I need to be”.
At first glance, it didn’t really set off my alarm bells, but then I realized, one of these people in this conversation has the ability to destroy the life of the other one for literally any reason they feel like.
And then suddenly, maybe her answer sounds more like, “I’ll stay up as late as I have to for you to not be upset with me”, or even, “I’ll stay up as late as you want so you don’t destroy my life”.
What other answer could she give without risking Keith telling her she sleeps too much? Ok, now circle back again and remember that one of these people has the other’s initials branded onto their body. Do you really think she giggled because promising to stay up all night for no reason is so great?
Nicole has every right to be furious at Allison for deceiving and recruiting her, but her line about “premeditation on Keith and Allison’s part” doesn’t sit right with me. It makes them sound like they were equal players in this, which is wrong.
Again, even if Allison proclaimed to love DOS and think it was wonderful, on some level, she had to have understood that her life could be seriously upended if she disobeyed Keith.
