Cult Culture

For a society that is undeniably fascinated by cults, it’s ironic at best how rarely we recognize when we’re a part of one ourselves. 

The Manson Family. Peoples Temple. Branch Davidians. Children of God. 

We’ve heard the stories, watched the documentaries, and made jokes about “drinking the Kool-Aid” for decades now. We view cultists as gullible and easy to manipulate. But way too many of us fail to realize that as humans, we’re all easy to manipulate. Very easy, in fact. 

We make the mistake of believing that manipulation is usually overt, when it’s actually quite the opposite when most effective. And believe it or not, it affects every single one of us. Not because we’re gullible or stupid or weak. It’s simply because we’re human. 

As humans, we are extremely sensitive to our environment. Our minds are like sponges and we process information from our surroundings at a rate we can’t begin to comprehend. This starts before we’re even born, while in utero. 

For example, studies have found that stress on a mother during pregnancy shows a documentable effect on an infant's stress response ability up to adulthood. Meaning that we begin to respond to our environment before we are even fully developed, and our surroundings affect us so deeply that they shape who we are for years to come.

It is because of this fact that we are so susceptible to manipulation in the form of indoctrination, conditioning, and propaganda. We’re quite literally born into a “cult” with certain societal norms, expectations, and practices. Not all of these are bad, of course. 

But the vast majority of them are used to control us, whether we’re aware of it or not. 

As social creatures, we strive to maintain healthy attachments and connections with the people in our circles. Our minds actually process social rejection similarly to physical pain. Being part of a group secures survival, and so rejection is understood to us as a threat to our livelihood. 

But all too often, those attachments and connections aren’t healthy. We’re forced to compete and survive in an environment that manufactures scarcity to keep us dependent on the system. While our species was meant to coexist in communities that offered support, comfort, acceptance, and love, the demands of our current society have left us traumatized, divided, and oftentimes isolated from one another. 

And do you know what cults thrive on? Traumatized people who are isolated and seeking comfort and connection. This leaves them vulnerable to outside influences and more susceptible to control. This is why our entire culture is made up of a variety of cults with various ideologies that people identify with and defend to the end. 

While the ideologies may differ, the cult mentality remains the same across the board, and is defined as follows: 

1. Authoritarian leadership with close to complete control of its followers 

2. Disruption of authentic identity and replacement with new/different identity

3. Consistent promotion of “us vs. them” mindset

4. Elitism and “special” status for group and its leaders 

Does this sound familiar to you? 

There is no denying that supporters of both political parties in the US have a cult mentality. This is why it’s so difficult to reason with diehard liberals and conservatives. There is no logic in their steadfast support of either party and instead, a warped sense of reality.

This reality has been carefully curated by means of indoctrination, conditioning, and propaganda. Our entire belief system and individual opinions are fed to us via media, entertainment, education, religion, and societal “norms.” They’re reinforced by the influence of the adults we’re surrounded by and the community in which we exist in. 

Those adults and community members were subconsciously taught by the same institutions and influences years prior. The cycle goes on and on and we call it our culture. Depending on where we’re raised and what our community values, we form our beliefs, opinions, and thoughts. 

Some people take on the identity of being more conservative, and some being more liberal. There are variations throughout and there are exceptions to the rule. A smaller percentage of us don’t align at all- and then call ourselves “politically homeless.” 

But for those who do, their cult gives them the comfort and connection they were seeking. So, when the Democratic Party is criticized, members of the group feel personally attacked. The same goes for whenever the Republican Party is criticized. The members can no longer dissociate themselves from the party itself. 

This entanglement with political and personal identity is extraordinarily emotional. The members of the cult have been conditioned to fear “the other”, and despite being not all that different from their mirror images, have intense feelings of hatred towards one another. 

They believe they are one another’s enemy, even though they hold no real power to fundamentally change or affect the material conditions of each other’s lives. 

They view “the other” as less than themselves. They believe they are smarter and morally superior to the other, even though members of both parties continuously make excuses for the undeniably immoral actions of their leaders. This is because the leaders of their parties can do no wrong and are in many ways godlike to them. 

In their constant fear of the other, they signal to members of their cult that they are safe with one another. Whether in the form of a red hat or a blue bracelet, this public display of membership to one another allows them to feel at ease when emotions are particularly heightened. Subconsciously, they reinforce one another’s delusions and warped sense of reality. 

Because in reality, neither cult is safe. They have forgone their ability to critically think in exchange for their sense of comfort in a very uncomfortable world. And although this is understandable because we are all only human, it puts every single one of us at great risk.

When we are as divided as we are, there is little hope for us to gain any power back from those who have manufactured the very real problems we all face. While we fight one another and point the finger of blame at each other, those at the top continue to wage war in our name. They continue to fund genocide around the world. They continue to build out a fully functioning digital police state here. They continue to steal the world’s resources and wealth, with very little pushback from us. 

Manipulating the people into serving their various cults serves them quite well. And that’s why they funnel billions upon billions of dollars into their propaganda to maintain them. They need us to view them as gods and saviors and heroes, because if we knew who they really were and what they were really doing, we’d see that the Kool-Aid is poison. 

We’d stop wearing the hats and the bracelets and believing the slogans. We’d finally be free to truly think for ourselves. If we recognized that they never have and never will serve us, we’d be in a position to empower ourselves and one another to find the strength to walk away. We’d recognize that we are all we ever needed in the first place. 

We’d walk away from their cults; the leaders would lose their control… and there is no cult without a cult following.