Really cool article. As a son of fundamentalist parents, whose mother is now obsessed with alternative facts and tarot reading hucksters, I’ve seen the darkest sides of this behavior. In my own life new age medicine, faith healers, and naturopaths preyed upon my parent’s low self-esteem, disconnection from reality, and good intentions and it made it very difficult to find a diagnosis and treatment for a chronic illness (chronic appendicitis and poor digestion of long-chain sugars) I lived with.
I wish there were a better way to connect to people like my parents, whose desire to help their children, and isolation from mainstream culture, lead to their child being socially isolated and legally disabled well into adult-hood. It’s hard, even, to discuss the idea without judgement toward people like my parents who, I know, felt very misunderstood, and became more dedicated to their cult for those feelings.
I feel very grateful for my ability to see passed it and, honestly, put that genetic predisposition to wonder and stories toward mythology and fiction, rather than mythology and fictions masquerading as reality.
I can forgive my parents. I can’t say it has been so easy to forgive those who took advantage of them, however.
From what I’ve read here, quite the opposite. A lot of people overcome family dysfunction and carve a path for themselves to the degree that they’re not susceptible to cults, enough that most cults remain small (the GOP aside – see below). My point is that if someone grows up in a family where they don’t feel loved, accepted, valued, and are actively nurtured they’re going to be a lot more vulnerable to predatory cult leaders who will exploit the situation.
A victim is a victim, a predator is a predator, and the latter always deserves the blame for being a bad actor. The former may be more susceptible to the blandishments of the latter for reasons that are not their own fault. The intrinsic characteristic in this case is that someone grew up in a dysfunctional family like yours but for whatever reason (usually one that has nothing to do with their own efforts) didn’t manage to break the cycle in adulthood to the degree that you did, where you’re less susceptible to joining a cult.
Certainly coming from a family that is loving, nurturing, etc. doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t join a cult, especially (as mentioned above) if they’re targeted as adolescents but even into adulthood. There are no 100% guaranteed outcomes either way, just probabilities and odds when we ask why people are swayed by cults.
That’s a major part of it as well. The whole underlying thesis of neoliberal capitalism, per Thatcher, is that there is no such thing as society. 40 years of that attitude, combined with its partner worldview of the “strict father model”, is exactly why so many Americans feel isolated and unloved and unvalued and damaged. It’s also why public education and the teaching of critical thinking skills have been de-valued, with the outcome you describe.
It’s also why I don’t think calling the modern GOP a cult (and specifically a death cult) is hyperbole – it emerges out of a society that has actively encouraged families/clans – including ones that are dysfunctional by design – as the only acceptable collective unit. The predators leading that particular cult have managed to create one that dwarfs those of all the other grifters put together in terms of numbers.
Of course. I’ve also been saying that adults who come from a dysfunctional family have a higher (but far from 100%) probability of being swayed by a cult than those who come from families where they felt loved, nurtured, and valued.
I’m going to have to sit with that a bit. I can’t think of anything I worship. To be clear, I don’t for a moment imagine that makes me any less susceptible to recruitment in a cult. I just don’t have that shared experience that I’m aware of. Maybe because I’m not neurotypical? There are so many things that I didn’t even realize were a thing until much later in life. This may be one of them.
This is probably one of those long discussions where someone else might be able to point out a blind spot for me.
I don’t think that’s the cause of being vulnerable to cults, and I think it really dismisses the actual causes of such things, that we are all vulnerable to, in the modern context. It assumes that only damaged people are susceptible, but the reality is that cults in the modern era function off our need for community (whoever we are or whatever our background) and the ubiquity of mass mediate culture. Even incredibly well-adjusted and highly educated people fall for cults, because it pulls on some core need human beings have.
This! One of the smartest people I know (and my oldest friend) got sucked into something (I’m not sure if it’s Q or what). If I had to guess, he got pulled in by the MRA crowd and slowly converted that way. I never would have thought that he’d be so susceptible to something like that, but it happened.
If you can find that one raw spot someone has and offer up like-minded folks who may or may not have a solution, you can win over the smartest folks just as easily as you could someone who wouldn’t considered smart.
Maybe, but I’m not sure it’s that, so much as it is how we’re still socialized into some pretty hierarchical, patriarchal structures in the modern era.
yeah, though his last two before he left us were just beautiful albums full of insight into the human condition.
If you feel this leaves a void in your life, feel free to worship me. From afar, at your leisure, without any obligations whatsoever. Just as an option.
Yeah. That’s a good point. I think what I was trying to trying to say is there’s an unmet need with one of those expected structures and it creates an opening for exploitation.
