The havoc that this basic contradiction plays within the minds and lives of the disciples may readily be imagined. But cults become significantly fascinating when the esoteric and exoteric creeds are usually not solely different, however completely and glaringly in mutual contradiction. The adoration of the cult founder and chief, the hierarchical construction, the unswerving loyalty, the psychological (and when in command of State power, the physical) sanctions are all too evident. The main if not the only qualification for membership and advancement within the cult is absolute loyalty to and adoration of the guru, and absolute and unquestioning obedience to his commands. For not only was the Rand cult explicitly atheist, anti-religious, and an extoller of Reason; it additionally promoted slavish dependence on the guru within the identify of independence; adoration and obedience to the leader within the title of every persons individuality; and blind emotion and religion in the guru in the identify of Reason. Virtually each one in all its members entered the cult via studying Rands prolonged novel Atlas Shrugged, which appeared in late 1957, a couple of months earlier than the organized cult came into being. One in all Rose’s favorite outcomes of the occasion is the gratitude she receives for sparking conversations on slut-shaming.
WME agent Adam Venit has been accused of groping former NFL star and actor Terry Crews at a Hollywood event. She was going to be a star! The philosophical rationale for maintaining Rand cultists in blissful ignorance was the Randian principle of “not giving your sanction to the Enemy.” Reading the Enemy (which, with a few rigorously chosen exceptions, meant all non- or anti-Randians) meant “giving him your moral sanction,” which was strictly forbidden as irrational. In a development eerily paying homage to the organized hatred directed against the arch-heretic Emanuel Goldstein in Orwells 1984, Rand cultists were required to signal a loyalty oath to Rand; important to the loyalty oath was a declaration that the signer would henceforth by no means read any future works of the apostate and arch-heretic Branden. Indeed, in time this collective physique took on an aura of infallibility, which was later elevated to a dogma, and a members loyalty was examined, partially, by his acceptance of it.
The persevering with stress of such crises leads, unsurprisingly, to a very excessive turnover in Communist ranks, making a sea of ex-Communists far larger than the get together itself at any given time. Characteristic of the cult (from Hare Krishna to the “Moonies” to EST to Scientology to the Manson Family) is the dominance of the guru, or Maximum Leader, who can also be the creator and ultimate interpreter of a given creed to which the acolyte should be unswervingly loyal. The targets of the cult leadership are money and power. Money flows upward from the members via the hierarchy, either in the type of volunteer labor service contributed by the members, or via cash payments. Top positions in the hierarchy are generally filled by the unique handful of disciples, who come to assume these positions by virtue of their longer stint of loyal and devoted service. Choose toys wisely. Your buying preferences, your price range, and the amount of time you’ve gotten determines the place you purchase toys — in unique toy stores, present outlets, or kids’s shops; from catalogs that come in the mail; or in malls, supermarkets, and low cost retailers. I’m drunk. I’ve a laptop computer.
It’s the equality points that we deal with, but additionally the fact that, we will band together as women and stand up for one another and realize that we do have a voice that could make a change. For as soon as the acolyte is imbued with the view that approval of, and communication with, the guru are important to his life, then the implicit and explicit menace of excommunication of elimination from the direct or oblique presence of the guru creates a powerful psychological sanction for the “enforcement” of loyalty and obedience. The Board of Education will then take motion on the future of the sex training program. Actually, the mere failure to take a stand, the mere attempt to search out the details, or the assertion that one couldn’t take a stand on such a grave matter without information of the facts was adequate for instant expulsion.