On New Year’s Day 2021, I was forwarded a number of messages sent to members of my family by a then estranged family member. Not the traditional salutations celebrating our planet’s successfully completing another orbit of our nearest star, but exhortations to “pray for me” because I had shared a meme suggesting that a “god” who allows 8million people to die of hunger every year is not worth worshipping.
Don’t worry, this is not about religion, it’s not about “G/god”, but it goes to illustrate how strongly people react when their beliefs are challenged.
This is about what we are indoctrinated to believe.
I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, a religious group receiving more and more bad press about how it is sanctioning human rights violations within its corporate policy.
I was raised to believe (and this is by no means an exhaustive list);
- Anyone who has been offered the chance to “dedicate their lives” to Jehovah God and does not do so will be massacred in a soon to come fiery “Armageddon”. Since at last count there were only 8million JW Cult followers, this means that 7,666 Billion humans would be destroyed by their “Loving” creator.
- If you sin and do not show sufficient “repentance”, a judicial committee of “elders” will ex-communicate you, and NO JW is allowed to interact with you, doesn’t matter if you are a parent, sibling, best friend.
- If you need a blood transfusion you are to refuse, even if it means death, based on scripture prohibiting EATING blood. If your child needs blood, you are to resist the authorities and allow your child to die.
- You should turn down further education, and “be content with less” in order to have more time to spend preaching.
- Your sexuality is restricted to only sex acts which are “natural” and only between a man and a woman legally married to each other. No masturbation, no oral, manual or anal sex, no gay sex
Those are just 5 rules illustrative of indoctrination.
Now an intelligent person would reason that there are many non-Jehovah’s Witnesses who are good people, who deserve to live and prosper. They would respect an individual’s right to believe or NOT believe whatever they like as long as it does not impinge on the rights of their neighbours. A reasonable person would understand that there is a difference between a medical procedure and a sit-down meal. A rational individual would understand that by gaining a better education they would have MORE time and effectiveness than some minimum wage employee. A person who reads the Bible would find no prohibitions of sex-acts within a marriage, no prohibitions on masturbation…
BUT when your indoctrination begins from the moment you are conceived, this becomes part of you. Some will evolve past this, but many will go to their graves believing all that they have been indoctrinated to believe.
Ironically their very discouraging of further education put me in a position where this steady diet of indoctrination was interrupted;
I was pressured to marry my then girlfriend because they do not approve of drawn-out “courting”. Her parents insisted I must have a job first. So under pressure, during a recession and at the beginning of South Africa’s Affirmative Action policy implementation all I could find was shift work at a printing factory, which meant that I missed at least every third set of “meetings”. Without a steady stream of misinformation I had time and space to “think”, something they discourage (they even prohibit “independent thinking” about spiritual matters).
According to the “B.I.T.E. Model”, identifying a group as a “Cult” asks the questions;
- Behaviour Control
Do they control who you associate with, how you dress, how you express yourself sexually? - Information Control
Do they prohibit certain media? Do they restrict where you can access information? Do they distort or manipulate available information? - Thought Control
Do they instil an “us vs them” culture? Do they change your name or prefix (eg “brother/Sister” instead of “Mr/Ms”). Do they use their own “language” filled with jargon of terms specific to that group? - Emotional Control
Are you afraid of leaving the group? Are you told how to “feel” (“Rejoice for the end is near” comes to mind). Is a ritualistic confession of sins required?
The Jehovah’s Witnesses tick each of these many times, but, it’s not just the Jehovah’s Witnesses…
I look around and see many organizations that qualify as cults based on the B.I.T.E. Model, political organizations and militia movements are ripe and fertile soil. In South Africa I see the ANC and EFF with the image of their leaders prominently emblazoned over all their marketing material, vehicles and premises. A political group should be about policy and service, not the ‘worship” of an individual.
Further afield the MAGA and BREXIT movements quickly devolved into an “us vs them” conflict, MAGA particularly using symbolism and imagery to evoke emotions and control. The Proud Boys” prohibit masturbation among their members, and this is a singularly effective form of control, simply because it is almost impossible for people to avoid, while the resultant guilt makes the “offender” easily manipulated. Q-anon!… fuuuuuck! Do I really need to say more?
After all, this is how fascism begins, an unquestioning devotion to the ideals and popularism associated with a single individual. Mob mentality overcomes rational thought and human decency. In the now viral video of Arnold Schwarzenegger reacting to the Capitol Hill Riots, he speaks of growing up in Austria among men “broken” by what they had done in following the lies they were taught.
The 1999 movie Dogma suggested that rather than “beliefs” we should have “ideas”. Of course the general irreverence of the movie along with suggestions such as this had most “cults” prohibiting their members from watching since having their members actually thinking for themselves would be a financial disaster for them, and at the end of the day, let’s face it, it’s all about the money isn’t it?
So Trump’s flabby orange face won’t be shouting from the Whitehouse lawn anymore, but his hardcore followers will remain resistant to the truth.
The Anti-vaxers and Anti-maskers will remain resistant to science
The Jehovah’s Wobble-Ewes will stick their fingers in their ears and sing “lalalalalalalalaaaa”
The Proud Boys will furtively rub one out while no one is watching and then redeem themselves by beating up some black/jewish/gay person.
The Populists will draw ridiculous conclusions showing how progress is evil.
But I have a good IDEA (see what I did there?) about the way things are, but as an IDEA I won’t find it difficult to modify, or replace that IDEA when new information becomes available to me. A BELIEF is inflexible and subject to cognitive dissonance.
I used to cheer Ford on as the greatest automobile on earth, if I read a road test where the Golf GTi was better than the Focus STi in some aspect; I’d justify it away immediately. Now I look at a company like TESLA and I have an IDEA that they might just be better. I still BELIEVE that Opel is a steaming pile of shit though :-p
Two friends;
One Secular, the other a cult member argue with me regarding the nature of COVID 19, support of movements such as BREXIT and MAGA, white supremacy and religion. The secular guy is reasonable and able to concede a point here and there. We are able to respectfully agree or disagree, often “agreeing to disagree”. Even when tempers become heated, we are able to maintain our friendship with compassion and respect.
The “Culty” dude refuses to listen, telling me “to stop sending me rubbish” that my refusal to see things through the lens of his cult identifies me as an “enemy of God” and therefore worth of death should I persist in my evil ways.
Have many ideas my friends
kwcreations 