This is a masterful summary of ways in which cults operate, and how they gain sovereignty over their memberships, but I beg to differ on one point. Sooner or later we have to concede that all religions structures are actually cults because those that don't become cults die off. They die off because they cannot maintain the minimum number of adherents to support the system.
Every organization, including non-religious ones, have standards of behavior to which members must conform, even if those standards are simply those of good taste....but these organizations rarely extend aid and comfort to members who need such succor.
I simply cannot aceept the idea that there are transformative, liberating religious traditions that help people free themselves from oppressive thought control. For example, every meditation technique can actually be broken down to its basic core of a hypnotic induction, which is why Sufi teahers, when asked how to achieve enlightment, will often reply, "Think of Nothing."
I saw your comment after I had posted mine. You stole my thunder, Alan! Shavaun's summary is the best organized I have seen and goes further in several ways than I have ever seen in connecting the concept and definition of cult and cult behavior to broader human groups and psychology.
I am curious and do not quite follow your idea about all "religions structures are actually cults." Not sure this is the best place for an extended explanation but if what you are claiming can be explained further, it would be an astounding truth. Can you think of no religious organizations that do not meet the criteria for cult status? I find it difficult to imagine that you are saying you believe every Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist group is a uniform cult and that every even nominal member of any and all of those is a cult member.
And do we limit "religion" to groups that explicitly define themselves directly as religions and exclude groups that do not call themselves religions? Even atheists, who define themselves in contrast to groups that believe in a deity, would in a broader anthropological sense seem to qualify as a religion or anti-religion with standards, you put it nicely, to which members conform.
I know persons who consider themselves religious and belong to organized religions, but my friends would not admit their churches had gained sovereignty over them. No one I know would surrender serious decisions to his or her rabbi, pastor, priest, etc. I have known members of some sects, such as the World Wide Church of God, who qualify. But the majority of my friends do not even ask advice from their religious leaders and would never consult them about economic matters or even for family disputes. But they participate in services and even give money to keep the lights on and such.
I have not thought very much about what you seem to be saying, but it seems horrifying to believe all these billions of persons are cult members more similar to the people who drank poison at Jones Town in Guyana than different from them.
The feeling is mutual. You are one of the reasons that I keep coming back to FB. I am trying to wean myself off all social media because it distracts me from my immediate purpose which is turn my gibberish into readable works. Just for my own amusement. I am under no delusions that anyone other than a small circle of friends will ever even try to read what I have written. I am becoming content with that.
You think that's fearless, Check this out. I had a hernia repair today. The second one in three months because the first one sucked. I used the same surgeon again because I'm hoping the second resection is so bad that I can sue him. And while I was in the recovery ward, I received a message that I did not get the job that I had applied for because my son wanted me to get back into harness. (The real reason is that he's trying to liberate an engineer from that dead end job so he could add him to his team and figured that I might be able to give them a zetz in the kopf. So my gonif of a son was using me for his own designs. Note that he wants to slide ME into that same dead end job, but what else do I deserve at 74?
Figures. I taught him well. (I never spoke Yiddish. Why is it coming out now?)
But never fear, I came up with a way to keep those pesky divider curtains from opening up at the worst possible times, and got the 90 year old entrepreneur in the next bed interested in funding it. If it flies, I'm cutting in the nurses who handled me today.
I assume that when you compliment my fearlessness you're talking about my Chutzpah. (If I start speaking Hebrew,, I'm calling my surgeon. He's Israeli. He must have slipped me a Jewish Mickey.
Brilliantly laid out! There are two or three critical insights you share here. The gist is the fact that fundamentalism is a way of thinking about any set of beliefs; and the invitation you leave for further inquiry about whether there are deeper, broader reasons in psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, which account for fundamentalism in human approaches to ideas.
This is a masterful summary of ways in which cults operate, and how they gain sovereignty over their memberships, but I beg to differ on one point. Sooner or later we have to concede that all religions structures are actually cults because those that don't become cults die off. They die off because they cannot maintain the minimum number of adherents to support the system.
Every organization, including non-religious ones, have standards of behavior to which members must conform, even if those standards are simply those of good taste....but these organizations rarely extend aid and comfort to members who need such succor.
I simply cannot aceept the idea that there are transformative, liberating religious traditions that help people free themselves from oppressive thought control. For example, every meditation technique can actually be broken down to its basic core of a hypnotic induction, which is why Sufi teahers, when asked how to achieve enlightment, will often reply, "Think of Nothing."
I saw your comment after I had posted mine. You stole my thunder, Alan! Shavaun's summary is the best organized I have seen and goes further in several ways than I have ever seen in connecting the concept and definition of cult and cult behavior to broader human groups and psychology.
I am curious and do not quite follow your idea about all "religions structures are actually cults." Not sure this is the best place for an extended explanation but if what you are claiming can be explained further, it would be an astounding truth. Can you think of no religious organizations that do not meet the criteria for cult status? I find it difficult to imagine that you are saying you believe every Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist group is a uniform cult and that every even nominal member of any and all of those is a cult member.
And do we limit "religion" to groups that explicitly define themselves directly as religions and exclude groups that do not call themselves religions? Even atheists, who define themselves in contrast to groups that believe in a deity, would in a broader anthropological sense seem to qualify as a religion or anti-religion with standards, you put it nicely, to which members conform.
I know persons who consider themselves religious and belong to organized religions, but my friends would not admit their churches had gained sovereignty over them. No one I know would surrender serious decisions to his or her rabbi, pastor, priest, etc. I have known members of some sects, such as the World Wide Church of God, who qualify. But the majority of my friends do not even ask advice from their religious leaders and would never consult them about economic matters or even for family disputes. But they participate in services and even give money to keep the lights on and such.
I have not thought very much about what you seem to be saying, but it seems horrifying to believe all these billions of persons are cult members more similar to the people who drank poison at Jones Town in Guyana than different from them.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment Alan. I appreciate you.
The feeling is mutual. You are one of the reasons that I keep coming back to FB. I am trying to wean myself off all social media because it distracts me from my immediate purpose which is turn my gibberish into readable works. Just for my own amusement. I am under no delusions that anyone other than a small circle of friends will ever even try to read what I have written. I am becoming content with that.
I've always enjoyed your writing immensely. You're fearless.
You think that's fearless, Check this out. I had a hernia repair today. The second one in three months because the first one sucked. I used the same surgeon again because I'm hoping the second resection is so bad that I can sue him. And while I was in the recovery ward, I received a message that I did not get the job that I had applied for because my son wanted me to get back into harness. (The real reason is that he's trying to liberate an engineer from that dead end job so he could add him to his team and figured that I might be able to give them a zetz in the kopf. So my gonif of a son was using me for his own designs. Note that he wants to slide ME into that same dead end job, but what else do I deserve at 74?
Figures. I taught him well. (I never spoke Yiddish. Why is it coming out now?)
But never fear, I came up with a way to keep those pesky divider curtains from opening up at the worst possible times, and got the 90 year old entrepreneur in the next bed interested in funding it. If it flies, I'm cutting in the nurses who handled me today.
I assume that when you compliment my fearlessness you're talking about my Chutzpah. (If I start speaking Hebrew,, I'm calling my surgeon. He's Israeli. He must have slipped me a Jewish Mickey.
Haha, fearless in many ways. And yes, you always speak your mind.
Brilliantly laid out! There are two or three critical insights you share here. The gist is the fact that fundamentalism is a way of thinking about any set of beliefs; and the invitation you leave for further inquiry about whether there are deeper, broader reasons in psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, which account for fundamentalism in human approaches to ideas.
You have made my day. Again. Let's talk soon.
I love it that we get each other. This idea was going to be a book proposal but it ended up here which is probably the best place for it ;-)