Running Away from Cults
An easy choice
This story is my loud and total objection to cult mentality because in my opinion, it is the cult mentality that is at the root of most horrible things on Earth.
The very dishonest people in high positions of power most certainly love to exploit and cultivate the cult mentality—but they are few, and we are many—and we are not zombie meat bags, we are people with agency and an ability to change things.
We are not forever-hurting bystanders stuck in a reactive mode—we are partakers in the creation, and therefore, it is our job to reject any cult mentality, including in ourselves. Reject cult mentality is a practical thing to do! When we do that, we reduce the amount of “cult mentality” energy in the world, and since it is the type of energy that feeds the tyrants of all kinds, we make it a little bit harder for them to do their job.
Now, let me make a distinction. We are all entitled to our opinions about anything: politics, religion, history, individual people, etc. etc. But there is a big, big difference between holding opinions of any kind—and assuming that it is cool to dehumanize or mistreat those who hold different opinions or to deprive them of their free will, based on our fear. (Yes, we should protect ourselves—but it is possible to protect ourselves without walking over the dark side.)
Example
I personally strongly dislike the energy of ethnic prejudice. It is very dirty energy to my senses. I don’t respect it, I usually don’t want to be around it, and so on.
Now, living on Earth, I have of course been around different kinds of ethnic prejudice (I have even been beaten up in front of two separate crowds of people who didn’t look like me). I am aware. And yes, I can still have a calm conversation with a raging anger spewer, I just have very limited fun doing so.
By the way, I am mentioning “fun” because in some cases, there is still something interesting about listening to another person and, if the person is spewing hatred, praying to the powers much bigger than me for healing and love for all. As long as it is safe to do so.
Roots of prejudice
I believe that people’s ethnic prejudice (and there are different kinds) comes from their unresolved relationship with their own ancestors. For example, the views of the proverbial “white supremacists” (of the authentic kind, i.e. when people think for real that white people are superior to everybody else) can be traced, I think, to the violence and slander against their own beloved “pagan” ancestors from centuries ago, and the deep, deep trauma that was created and never healed). Similarly, the “black supremacy” seems to be of similar nature. People are mad that the truth and the dignity have been stolen from them as a people, as a beloved culture, and because it has not healed, they don’t mind going overboard with being pissed off. And the powers that may be then milk the pain for gain.
Anyway, depending on the circumstance, I find it mostly unpleasant to be around people with raging ethnic prejudice. However, I don’t take a hammer and try to fix their “wrongthink.” I have faith in the universe, I think there is a process to healing everything, and in due time (maybe many generations later), they will heal. My job is to focus on my job and not drive myself insane trying to solve the problems that I cannot solve.
Cult mentality
The cult mentality is rooted in anxiety. It is rooted in fear. And it being weaponized to the nth degree by the dishonest people in high positions of power.
Some examples from the recent history:
Processing everything happening in the world though the hatred and fear of Trump? A cult.
Obsession with vaccines and masks to the extent of cheering for mandates? A cult.
Believing that anybody who dares criticize Trump—or point out that he is Mr. Warpspeed himself— is a traitor or a useful idiot to the deep state? A cult.
Believing that anything outside of the Judeo-Christian beliefs is from the devil or at the very least, inferior, and needs to be rooted out? A cult.
Angrily demonizing successful and productive allies just because they dare have a different opinion or don’t focus enough on one’s sacred point of activism (viruses, blockchain, geopolitical 5D chess)? A cult.
And what I discovered in the past three years is that you think you have run away from a cult, and you sigh a sigh of relief—and then you suddenly find yourself next to a row of marketing booths where people try to drag you into opposite cults. LOL.
And so here is my honest take on this Cults Exhibition.
“Respectfully and loving, no. “
I feel very loving. Anywhere I look, I see fellow human beings trying their best. My love is very real. But I certainly don’t owe anybody a lobotomy. And if I had the whatever it took to voice my opinions about COVID loudly in April 2020, I certainly have it to continue thinking from the inside and speaking my own mind in a way that makes sense to me. With love.
Cults, deflate.
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Well said. Cult thinking of any sort leads to a rigid mentality that severs itself from the richness of the world, trapping its victims in unrealities of various kinds.
Interestingly, this is unrelated, or nearly so, to specific beliefs. It is, rather, a stance towards belief.
Tessa,
Regarding cults, I often recall talking to serial Jehovah’s Witnesses and after a while, the common trait was that they always had to defer their answer to consulting someone higher or deeper in their web when they were confronted with a thought that went beyond their margin. Somewhere there may have been lurking the shared fear of outsiders, but this characteristic of deferring to an expert authority seemed a common feature. This resonates with your crusade against robots. The recent charade to “follow the science” was the march of the robots to follow Fauci, in favor of actual science that is always testing the hypothesis …and eschewing the traditional view, or pronouncement by self-proclaimed authority.