Are We Growing the Next Leaders or a Cult?

As the year 2020 comes to a close I’m reminded of how quickly things seem to change, but in reflection how long it took to get to this point. Radicals and ideologs have always been at both corners of the the American scale. However I fear the imbalance of power to any one side erodes liberties and opportunities over time. I believe most that comply with the demands of these ever-battling foes do so with good intentions or a false sense of absolute clarity. In this recent point of society I see strong similarities to behaviors being adopted in our social circles that are found in cults. Below are 8 specific attributes of a cult. What do you think?

1.       [Leadership Authority]

Members are not allowed to criticize leadership, even if the criticism is undeniable. Leadership is respected as the ultimate authority and all matters are settled in their favor under the discipline to approved science or supernatural law. This idea allows them to exploit their followers without repercussions.

2.       [Information Control]

A member is only allowed to collect information through approved sources. Skepticism will be viewed as problematic to the health of organization and every effort is made to suppress it. Leadership are generally the orators of information and will deliberately withhold or distort information.

3.       [Financial Obscurity]

Members are not allowed to know what the group does with money or its use is ambiguous. Leadership tends to live opulently while their followers are required to make sacrifices of time or money for the sake of group unity. This sense of responsibility is often manipulated by leadership to coerce members into risky financial behavior, sexual favors, acts of violence, free labor, or heightened recruitment efforts to further the cause. Members are encouraged to pay offerings even to the point of putting themselves and others at risk.

4.       [Behavior Control]

Leadership uses the collective to dictate the safe members to associates with and to emulate. It isolates members by behavioral examples of awards\punishments set to strict (but sometimes changing) rules and regulations. Financial exploitation is used to build the groups dependency. The group is trained to be aggressive in their recruitment, justifying their methods seeing themselves as the enlightened or chosen, tasked with radically transforming individual lives and the entire world.

5.       [Identity Adjustments]

The group slowly breaks down a person’s sense of identity and ability to internalize rationally. The group will change a person's name or personal and possessive pronouns; for example, us-we-ours. Behaviors like fasting, drug use and chanting thought-terminating cliches are used to increase a person’s vulnerability, impairing the ability to critically analyze complex issues.

6.       [Purity Boundaries]

The group will delegitimize former members and outsiders. Members considers the group the ultimate authority on truth, they cannot imagine anybody leaving or living outside of it with any integrity intact. Fear of being wrong, excluded, abused, or being expelled are cultivated within the group under the guise of love and empathy.

7.       [Thought Control]

Members are required to internalize the group's doctrine as truth. They are often asked to voice examples to an audience, on what is good and what bad in accordance with it. Complexities of language may be reduced into platitudinous buzz words. Outsiders may be referred to as lost or blind, while outside authorities are considered evil or fascists.

8.       [Shame Cycles]

Members need the group to feel worthy of love and respect, or sufficient. Leadership traps members by imposing abnormally strict codes of conduct. Members are guilted for their shortcomings and leadership position themselves as the solution. Leadership can use shame to manipulate followers into things even against their own self-interest or better judgment.