Since so many essayists and commenters are interested in the activities and consequences of people espousing ideology of false patriotism, dominionism, fundamentalism and other -isms, I thought I’d play with the principles a bit and explore what can be done to counteract the effects.
The framework of a preferred paradigm that I’m using is that of embracing the classic virtues. Don’t remember them? You’re not alone.
But along with rediscovering our shared history, we might do worse than to rediscover and revisit the classic virtues.
A caveat for those of you who aren’t familiar with my posts: I am very dyslexic, myopic, and arthritic. I re-read my posts and most often continue to edit them for wrong words, poor grammar and unclear sentences after I post. I appreciate it when readers point our errors, and I do my best to make posts works-in-progress which reflect commenters’ participation and contributions.
There are many scholarly texts which outline characteristics of cults and attributes of members. This isn’t a post to regurgitate or criticize those foundational works.
Essentially, the things that most people look to cults to fill are factors of socialization:
Clear rules of membership
Delineation of US and OTHERS
Reward system for compliance
Punishment and threat of shunning/ostracism for noncompliance
Clear normative values