Political Cults
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein
A cult is a group that may be defined by unusual religions, philosophies, or common interests in a specific personality or goal. Cults can be dangerous or benign, although dangerous cults have gotten far more attention. While many cults are religious in nature, others are political or devoted to a particular cause. A political cult is rooted in political action and ideology or built around a specific leader or personality.
Political cults can have far right or far left agendas. In fact, leaders of a few well-known cults actually changed their ideology and philosophy mid-stream. What we are seeing in the United States right now is a dramatic increase in groups with a far-right ideology. There is a degree of overlap among different cults and conspiracy groups.
The signs that a political group may be a cult include:
· Dedicated to a certain ideology or philosophy
· Oppose critical thinking by members
· Inappropriate loyalty to the leader
· Isolating members from family and friends who oppose their beliefs
· Difficult to leave the group
Political cults certainly don’t want members engaging in critical thinking or really any political thought at all. They want to tell you what to think or believe, which is completely the opposite of a sane political group in which members share certain basic ideologies but frequently disagree. In a normal political group, engagement and discussion should be encouraged. In a political cult, members are expected to be overly loyal to a person or build their entire group identity around one leader.
Well-Known Political Cults
There have been a number of dysfunctional organizations in the United States, including:
The Collective — The Collective was a core group of followers of Ayn Rand that were devoted to the author and her philosophy of Objectivism. In an interview with Mike Wallace, she described her “new morality” based entirely on reason and rational self-interest. Essentially, Objectivism is greed and pro-individualism. The basic ideology is laid out in her book The Fountainhead, which was published in 1943 and made into a movie six years later. Basically, there is no altruism or human worth beyond money and selfishness.
The Collective would gather at Rand’s apartment in New York for discussions during the time Rand was working on her best-known novel, Atlas Shrugged. A notable member of the Collective was Alan Greenspan, who later went on to become the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and remained close to Rand until the end of her life.
Although the book sold well, there was a lot of backlash to the ideas in the book and her philosophy in general. In Esquire, Gore Vidal called objectivism “nearly perfect in its immorality”. Many others criticized the preoccupation with wealth, business, and encouraging people to be completely selfish.
The group is now defunct, but Objectivism experienced a resurgence in popularity among those eager to believe that it is acceptable to be selfish and completely self-involved. Ayn Rand superfan and former Wisconsin Senator Paul Ryan is among the most vocal supporters in government in recent years. Other fans include Steve Jobs, Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and Ronald Reagan. The basic ideas of Objectivism have been embraced by libertarians and those who promote the idea of the Prosperity Gospel.
The LaRouche Movement — This group includes followers of Lyndon LaRouche. Of all the political cult leaders he is unique, as he started out on the far left and ended on the far right. From Marxist roots, he initially sought the presidency in 1976 as a far left third party candidate, but quickly began to shift to the right. Interestingly, when his views shifted from left to right, his followers changed right along with him. He ran for president a total of eight times, including once in 1992 when serving prison time for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
His peculiar patchwork of views were steeped in conspiracy theory and often targeted both the left and the right. He called climate change a fraud and held anti-Semitic and racist views, but he also accused the Bush family of collaborating with Nazis and called the Iraq war a neoconservative conspiracy. A few years later, he would be advocating for the impeachment of Barack Obama.
LaRouche certainly had the megalomania typical of a cult leader. His explanation for leaving Northeastern University without finishing his degree was that his “superior intellect” was not being sufficiently challenged. Hmmm, something about that seems familiar…
Like leaders of all political cults, LaRouche certainly had his detractors. In Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, biographer Dennis King argued that he and his followers posed a danger to democratic institutions. Adlai Stevenson denounced his National Democratic Policy Committee as Neo Nazis. It probably didn’t help that he would present himself in a way that confused people into thinking he was representing the actual Democratic Party. His followers are still around in a number of organizations operating in the United States and other countries.
Democratic Workers Party — This far left Marxist-Leninist party was formed by a group of women around cult leader Marlene Dixon. The cult had a collective ideology, in which members would pool their income and resources and complete assigned tasks. The party had a level of secrecy that meets or exceeds what would be expected of a cult. They changed their name several times, operated in a covert manner, and kept the party a secret for the first five years of its existence.
Followers believed that Dixon and the party itself were inseparable. They had their own print shop, which produced books, newspapers, fliers, direct mail, and other materials that were distributed to members and recruits. Similar to the LaRouche Movement, this group changed its ideology as the cult leader changed hers. In the 80s, Marlene Dixon began to move away from her Marxist-Leninist roots. The group lasted a short time, being established in 1974 and defunct by 1987. Disagreements within the party led to the lieutenants voting her out while she was out of the country and voting to dissolve the organization.
New Political Cults
In recent years, far right conspiracy theories have continued to feed and grow political cults. The QAnon group is a cult that is steeped in conspiracy theory, vague rhetoric, and “led” by the enigmatic “Q”, an anonymous user of a far right wing platform during the 2016 election. The dark corner of the internet where Q was born is the same place where the infamous “Pizzagate” conspiracy originated.
This group is part of a larger movement around the former president. Donald is the quintessential cult leader sharing many characteristics of other cult leaders, from Jim Jones to Lyndon LaRouche. His group of followers moves along with his ever-changing whims without questioning anything. In fact, a large percentage of them actually believe he won an election that he clearly and resoundingly lost. Their evidence? He told them he won.
Whether they originate on the far left or the far right, political cults are dangerous to democracy. The allegiance to the cult leader results in people following delusional individuals in ways that can cause harm to the country. One only has to look at Ayn Rand’s influence on those in charge during the economic meltdown of 2008 or the damage being done to the country by an insane and delusional former president who refuses to accept his loss and incites insurrection among his followers.
