It is true that the word “cult” can be applied maliciously against any small group so as to provoke antipathy towards it; for “cult” now carries sinister connotations, whereby, for instance, one is led to imagine a small group of people, mostly and barely able to think for themselves, dupes of sinister interests, passively led by powerful individuals to believe and act in some ways rather than in others. To most of those who belong to the wider societies of the West, steadfast under the dominion of mass and media, under governmental and business-economical propaganda, all such stand-apart groups with the label of “cults” do seem to be sinister and frightful, enough indeed for every right-thinking man to have no thought but to wish to see them stamped out.
4 comments:
Sinny cults.
Weber's Unrefined Dictionary defines "cult" as a group of people no larger than who can commit suicide by an orderly ingestion of cool-aid. Larger groups are understood to be political parties, religions, and fan-clubs.
Under this definition, reactionary-conservatives are a cult.
Indeed, the word has attained an almost mystical naughtiness about it.
Does this post perhaps contain a surfeit of conjunctives?
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