I was in elan and yea, a lot of similarities. elan had a pretty extensive class system. Shot down was the lowest, worker was standard entry level, then expeditor, then something else, then guru, and I can’t remember the rest.

Anything lower then expeditor weren’t allowed to talk to one another without a higher up “being aware” or couldn’t use the bathroom without an escort(who could deny you if they were busy or just didn’t want to). If you wanted to speak to a staff member(even if they were right next to you) you had to ask a higher leveled person who would then tell the staff you wanted to talk. At meal time the highest member at the table got to pick the food first followed by the next highest and so on.

elan also did the same thing with boys and girls. They were not supposed to talk to each other and doing so could get you in trouble. elan had like 4 houses and on the very rare occasions the houses crossed paths, you were not allowed to talk to them or even LOOK at them.

They also stripped you of any “old you” identities. Plain clothes, no logos, no piercings, no jewelry, no non standard hair colors/cuts(I don’t think they even allowed boys to have long hair), no hats, and no hoodies.

They did the same thing with music as well. No swear words or extreme stuff. Thankfully burning cds were a new thing when I was there and my used his works CD burner to burn me some good music I liked.

If they suspected you were going to escape( pretty much impossible, the place is in bumfuck Maine in the woods) they would make you wear fluorescent clothing, and in the case of boys… fluorescent PINK clothing and take your shoelaces. Sometimes make you wear a sign around your neck as well.

The one good thing about elan was it wasn’t backed by religion. I don’t even remember an option for church.