What is a cult?

A cult is officially defined as an association of people that exhibit a stern reverence for a central figure, usually the founder of the cult. The cult’s members abandon their sensibilities in favor of the recommendations, suggestions, and assertions made by their cult-leader. The recommendations made by the cult-leader oftentimes defy logic and common sense and require “faith” or the “suspension of disbelief” on the part of the members of the cult in order to establish a sense of commonality among them. This mechanism leads to a “brainwashing” of the members, generally to the pleasure of the cult-leader who acts as a “shepherd” in relation to his followers.

Cults also tend to be anti-government in various capacities and like to live by “their own rules.” This mode of thinking among the members of the cult can lead to criminal activity that eventually leads to the demise of the cult, usually by law-enforcement intervention. Examples of this reality consist of the fates of the Ku Klux Klan, the Manson Family, the Order of the Solar Temple, Heaven’s Gate, River Road Fellowship, and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All-in-all, you rarely hear about “cults” being ever-enduring, successful, or even profitable; I am inclined to believe that the reason for this is because the very foundation of a cult is never in any notable ideal, but is to criminally defy institutions and organizations that already exist, namely vast corporations and various systems of government and religion.

Overall, if you really look into the cult mechanism, from its founding to its end, you will see an obvious pattern; the pattern follows a blueprint-like path that leads to the dismantling of the cult by law enforcement agencies. I suppose that this is what makes a cult a “cult” as opposed to being an association of friends; in a cult, the end goal is criminality that is exercised by the members and the leaders alike. America, being a nation of law and order, shan’t stand for such organizations. In an associations of friends however, the end goal is enlightenment, friendship, and a roundly mutual desire to become better people.