Cult de-prommaning, just another cult?

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by silent thunder

 

Interestingly Rick Ross even discusses "commercial cults' like Amway or Herbalife.
Having a bit of a socialist tinge I would ask: who am I working for?
I think "labor" is also very much abused by cults.
I know it is different from the average "Christian" paying tithes, but I still can't find a criterea as to why?

Sure, a pyramid scheme can become "cult-like," although true physical abuse and complete separation society are probably not so much involved (if at all).

Its not all-or-nothing, either...there are aspects of "cultishness" to be found everywhere...the preoccupation with tech stocks in the dot-com boom, housing in the housing boom (i.e.,, use of jargon, climbing a ladder, condescension to those who "just don't get it," obsessive workaholism that is unhealthy for the mind, etc...)

I think the difference between a "Christian paying tythes" and a "Christian scrubbing the cult-leader's boots with a toothbrush" may lie in the more "open-ended" aspect of the former...in other words, you can pay tithes and still more-or-less be part of the wider society. You are not as strictly controlled and the true deep brain-changes and light hypnosis of a "real" cult are absent. Although people can certainly develop very unhealthy, "cultish" relationships with even the most mainline of churches on an individual basies...think the crazy old woman with 20 cats down the street who is always clutching a bible and muttering to herself....

reply to post by silent thunder

Or take Ned Flanders in The Simpsons.
He's actually cult material, and even phones the pastor to ask which breakfast cereal to eat. Yet he's so harsh that even religion finds him irritating, as Rev Lovejoy told him: "Ned, have you considered any of the other religions, they're all quite similar you know".
I think there is a sado-masochistic streak to some people and if cults didn't exist, we'd have to invent them!

All mindwashing is out out out.

Anyone who tries to do that is evil.

We have to keep our minds open.

reply to post by halfoldman

Just wondering, could anyone posting here think of a really harsh cult to join? I mean, what's the worst cult that is active right now people can think of?

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by halfoldman

 

Just wondering, could anyone posting here think of a really harsh cult to join? I mean, what's the worst cult that is active right now people can think of?

Interesting question...perhaps unanswerable. I'll mull it over a bit. I mean, it's a bit like saying, "would you rather be boiled to death in oil or in vinegar?" Ummm.....but certainly you could probably say some are "worse" than others.

Another thing...the very worst stuff going on right now we probably don't even know of...because if we knew, somebody would be trying to put a stop to it...its one of those things we usually find out after the fact. How many had ever heard of Charles Manson or Heaven's Gate before their sordid deeds?

I think true religious cults are kind of in "the doldrums" now...lots of them have died or shrivled...their "boom years" were probably the 70s. People sort of "wised up" after so much bad news about the topic came out in the 70s and 80s. But of course they still exist...and who knows, hard economic times may provide fertile soil for a "revival."

reply to post by silent thunder

I think we get a lot of cults and scams that are old news elsewhere. I was given a cartoonich booklet at the traffic lights by two "hot" women from "The Children of God". (Not sure if it was the same cult as the 1970s, but definately wierd.)
Also when people are desperate and unemployed they go for those things.
So I'm thinking David Berg.
Thinking orgies and '___', but alas they've cleaned up their act, although I could swear those girls were "flirty fishing".
So I suppose I'm the "vinegar-cult" type.
I would prefer something dooms-day to some reformed mission however.