How cults can produce killers

The Irish Times ^ | Jul 16 2005 | Dennis Tourish

[AdmSmith]

Here is a qoute from http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/cults1.html

"Killer cults tend to be led by charismatic megalomaniacs who pit themselves and their churches against the rest of the world. They are usually apocalyptic visionaries drunk with lust and power that have physical and sexual control over their followers. In most cases their beliefs stem from twisted interpretations of established doctrines. These self-proclaimed divinities usually amass a large arsenal of weapons before bringing forth their personal day of reckoning."

[AdmSmith]

Looking into the head of UBL and similar megalomaniacs.

[Man50D]

How could such people have callously bombed dozens of their fellow citizens into oblivion?

Here's the answer.

Islamic Scholar Warns U.S. of Two Faced Muslims

[EBH]

Consistent with this, a recent analysis of 500 al-Qaeda members found that the majority of them had been in further education and were from relatively affluent families.

And it is this small analysis that is consistently overlooked by the MSM and the liberals. They claim terrorism is often caused by the poor & suppressed in the ME or culture. And until it is understood that this is not the case at all we will remain vulnerable to attack. We are not at war with the poor in the ME, but the rich of the ME and that gives a whole different perspective on the WOT and the phrase "Nation of Islam."

[PGalt]

But in fact researchers have found no correlation between cult membership and psychological disorder.

LOL!

The smallest minority in the world is the individual.

Individual vs Collective

Freedom vs Slavery

Life vs Death

[Former Dodger]

Good post AdmSmith...I also think that there must be some type of drugs involved, as there was in the days of the Assassins

PROP Ping!

[goldstategop]

Charismatics? ROFL! More like sociopaths with delusions of grandeur. That's the kind of guys who lead killer cults.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Fzob]

We should never underestimate the power of ideology.

This holds true in many other areas as well. One just needs to look at the cult of Klintoon, or the cult of Feminism, or Scientology... or any any brain dead progressive committed to some loopy cause.

[Restorer]

Cults promote a message which claims certainty about issues which are objectively uncertain.

This is also unfortunately a classic definition of religion in general, and thus by itself gives us no way to differentiate between a "religion" and a "cult."

Of course, the traditional definition is that my beliefs are a religion, and yours are a cult.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. And the other point is evil is a matter of personal CHOICE. Its not caused by social conditions, economic deprivation, familial abuse, or educational attainment. People who do evil do it because they enjoy violating society's rules and because it gives them a god-like power over others. They don't do it because society didn't give them a fair shake. That's the difference between how conservatives and liberals look at bad guys. We believe they need to be punished. Liberals believe they need to be understood and rehabilitated. In a nutshell, there's the difference between the two philosophies in our Age Of Terror.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[lemura]

the traditional definition is that my beliefs are a religion, and yours are a cult.

Which is why it's futile to lable something a religion or cult. In reality, the phrase 'Islam' is just an identifier for a philosophy that is antithetical to the West.

We didn't need to know why the Japanese/Nazis hated us during WWII, and we certainly didn't care whether or not their religions (Shinto/Pagan) were cults.

[Larry Lucido]

How cults can produce killers

Soooo, the Davidians PRODUCED Janet Reno?

[Restorer]

Personally, I do not care what someone believes.

I care a lot about their actions, particularly if they involve me and high explosives.

[goldstategop]

What exactly did liberals have against the Davidians? They harmed no one and yet the Left relished finishing them off with tanks. The same Left that shrinks from the use of force against Islamofascist terrorists.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Larry Lucido]

Precisely my point. It was self-appointed anti-cultists such as Rick Ross (who inexplicably has admirers on this site) who advised "Slash-and-Burn" on how to implement her final solution on the group.

The author of this pablum is prominently featured on the Ross site, not surprisingly.

[DB]

No go on the link.

[Man50D]

Sorry about that. Try this.

Islamic Scholar Warns of Two Face Muslims

[Larry Lucido]

The author uses paragraph after paragraph of psychobabble to finally get to this "prescription":

What therefore can be done? It is certainly clear that where cultic groups engage in illegal activities the full force of the law should be deployed against them.

What the hell does that mean? Strictly enforce zoning laws against Jehovas Witness temples? More health department inspections at Hare Krisha-owned restaurants?

We must become suspicious of those who claim certainty, we must challenge all authority figures and we must cherish dissent: it is these responses that diminish the leaders of cults, rather than the society in which we live.

Yep, that will have the muzzies quivering in their boots.

[A. Pole]

Militant secularists try put down all other religions. Amish are very separate and commited but they do not blow themselves up.

And it is militant secularists who in the name of their cult murdered the largest number of people.

[A. Pole]

What the hell does that mean? Strictly enforce zoning laws against Jehovas Witness temples? More health department inspections at Hare Krisha-owned restaurants?

Forced integration of the Amish, shaving the beards of the Hasidic Jews. Just do not do any profiling and do not look at these young men with Saudi passports.

Militant secularists are going to use Islamism as a reason for the new attack on all religions.