I think the ITCs started as a mystic school, radical NiangMaoists who took the austerities of this school to the extreme: "if starving and freezing is good, then torture is even better".
Eventually, an enterprising mandarin may have realized that the camps could be used for other purposes as well. Stick a prisoner there and there are two possible outcomes:
The actual purpose of the camp remains mystical all the while. The use in criminal "redemption" is just a side effect, like so much else around mysticism.
Slightly related, I don't quite buy the sentiment that Sheng Seleris "stumbled on the final hurdle". He never intended to pass it, but started off on his journey with the explicit purpose of bailing out just before liberation, just like Oorsu Sara.
This is one of the great weaknesses of mysticism: it lends itself to such abuse as there are no spirits of reprisal or anything like that to hunt violators down. Sin is its own punishment so to speak in te mystic view, but the abuser doesn't care about that as he doesn't subscribe to that view (any more).
Powered by hypermail