The psychological acuity of cult founders and fundamentalist leaders is simply amazing, and disappointing that it does not get used for constructive purposes. That acuity enables them to invent simple yet tantalizing hooks to invite to their lair people who seek easy solutions to life (the assumption being that life as a whole is a problem - what is interesting is that these are not always feeble-minded people - they have just forgotten to count their blessings) and are even willing to cross (or teeter over) the line between life and death in order to get those solutions. These founders/leaders are able to broadcast messages at frequencies which get the mental tuning forks of their zombie followers resonating at feverish pitches, leading to inevitable destruction which unfortunately occurs only after severe damage is caused to people with 'sound' fundamentals. That is because cultists and fundamentalists are brothers in fire'arms' who shoot without thinking, and make enough sound to even make normal people question the soundness of their fundamentals.
These schools (or should I call them dungeons?) of thought are actually self-serving, extracting unwitting subservience from their gullible followers while appearing to serve them in the guise of fascinating other-worldly promises. Promises include the opportunity to:
- Meet George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison etc. [the list comprises of 72 'Virgin'ians ;-)];
- Be 'probed by alien benefactors' (an inherent contradiction that the 'cult'ivated mind is unable to fathom or process), some of which, unbeknownst to them, might be stowaways from less privileged parts of the world;
- Attain religious upliftment by making an annual month-long pilgrimage to pay respects to a black stone while loudly denouncing idol/symbol worship;
- Announce supreme devotion for 'their personally owned' god by indulging in fanatical skirmishes to prove that their permanently stoned destroyer god is better than the production support god worshipped by the other group; or
- Tread on the path to salvation by having immense emphasis placed on curbing urges and in the process inviting the worst possible channelization of those very urges.
It's disappointing to see that fundamentalists have the weakest fundamentals, prompting me to term the word 'fundamentalist' a one-word oxymoron (the phrase 'one-word oxymoron' is an oxymoron in itself since an oxymoron needs to have 2 opposite-meaning words to emphasize or strengthen the second word in the phrase).
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Sidebar - The Camera Eye
A cult member / fundamentalist, driven by pure drivel, is like a 1.3 megapixel camera - the snapshots captured, while sharp and viewable in wallet or 3x5 format, get pixelated and lose clarity as soon as they get blown to poster-size. This is a direct result of the glorified crap they are fed with seemingly strong justifications, ready to fall apart under simple scrutiny.
The common man, driven by both logic and emotion, is like a 5 MP camera - enough clarity to blow up to small poster-size, beyond which fuzziness is imminent. The philosopher/rationalist, driven by more logic than emotion, is like a 12 MP camera - enough clarity to blow up to a large poster. Then there's the Vulcan, driven by pure logic, no emotion and pointed ears, who is like a 100 MP camera. The snapshot can be blown up to fit the side of a 5 story building (I think I have got my scale wrong, and the MP->enlargement size proportion will blow up under scrutiny too) but it will take an inordinate amount of time and stepping backwards to get the full picture (pun intended). I am a little afraid of the Vulcan because their mindset edges dangerously close to the cultist/fundamentalist mindset (any and every action can be rationalized), so it's good to know that they exist only on the planet Vulcan.
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The bottomline is that it is all about control. While we don't need no thought control, we do need education, and a good one at that in order to steer clear of being driven funda'mental'. Lack of control leads to anarchy, and too much control leads to rebellion which then leads to anarchy. No matter what structure or framework is built to wield balanced control, entropy ensures that anarchy starts gnawing at the foundation at the slightest opportunity. So control is most effective when it is combined with the awareness that that control is in place for the people, by the people, and originates from the people.
When there is 'Ctrl', there is a tendency to find 'Alt'ernatives and 'Esc'ape, but you typically get captured (Prt Sc), LOCKED (Caps Lock), and 'Del'eted. The system reboots, but unfortunately with a crashed hard drive, resulting in no remembrance of your past user account, all promises of free software (which was actually pirated to begin with) unfulfilled, and some intact disk sectors making their way into your memory from time and time and prompting attempts to justify reincarnation.
I close with an image that very aptly complements the previous paragraph:
Note - If you are offended by this article because it hurts your sensibilities, please don't go back and read it again.
