From childhood, I have asked ‘why’ incessantly, often then to my parents’ vexation. Why is the sky blue, etc., etc., and so on. Choosing a lifelong career in science was just an extension of that native curiosity. And very many satisfying answers to my inquiries, large and small, were had. Of course, the very big ones like ‘is there sentient life elsewhere in the universe?’ remain. That’s OK.
Back down here on Earth, there are some topics about which questions yield no satisfying or even informative answers. If you remember the Abbot and Costello skit, ‘Who’s on First?’ then you know of what I write.
The frustration and impediments
Exhausting is the best description of what results from repeatedly asking friends and neighbors why they are in thrall under the dark spell of their latest guru. Much like my frustrated parents would resort to a ‘just because’ answer to finally dispense with my pestering inquisitiveness, the answers one gets are non-answers. A word salad of non-sequiturs, circular arguments, faux facts, nonsensical logic, fantasies, and immovable irrational contentions are the sum of what one gets. So, I no longer ask why.
Options
One could just walk away. But if some altruistic motive bubbles up that moves one to try some kind of intervention, we know words won’t work. What will? A saving grace is that we are not talking about an actual cult. The type of guru I cite does not rule autocratically over a fenced communal living compound with twenty-four-seven brainwashing and real penalties for even slightly questioning the imposed belief system. Our guru and close confederates accomplish their brainwashing through a ubiquitous profit-seeking media that panders to the dear leader while using relatively new online algorithms to reinforce whatever messages generate more views by more vulnerable people who come from a demographic that makes paying advertisers happy.
You would think that this kind of physically disaggregated cult would have a weaker hold on its adherents than the commune. But that’s apparently not so in practice. Some few believers choose to leave a true cult when they become disillusioned for some reason. Restrictions are too strict, the leader’s clay feet become painfully obvious, or perhaps a successful intervention by family or paid proxies for family may be responsible. Can such be expected to work on widely separated followers? No one knows. But there is time to test some hypotheses.
Next steps
We already know that clay feet in an external societal context are only met by followers rising to the defence of their put-upon leader. Internal clay feet would require a sincere contrite confession of the hoax by a leader who can prove it’s not being delivered under duress. How likely is that?
We could ask someone who has left the pseudo-cult why. And if they have become sufficiently introspective since separation, you might learn how they were bamboozled in the first place and what cut the cord. That seems most potentially useful, even if individual stories may differ somewhat. I say potentially because only if external influences were the trigger of disillusion can we try to duplicate that for those still enthralled.
Nota Bene: Others may ruminate differently. But be warned: In my case, seeing or hearing something quite trivial -- a saying, a store clerk’s mannerisms, or bad grammar on a food product’s label – triggers a stream-of-consciousness extrapolation toward grander notions and generalizations. That is what often happens in these posts. ADDENDUM: Those subscribers who have been here for a while will have noticed that at times ruminations have veered into diatribes. I make no apology. I just want my readers to know that it’s quite intentional. When events come close to making the ‘blood boil,’ that discontent bubbles up here.
Disclaimer: Any and all opinions expressed here are my own at the time of writing with no expectation that they will hold beyond my next review of this article. Opinions are like a river, winding hither and yon, encountering obstacles and rapids, and suffering turbulent mixing of silts from its depths and detritus from its banks. But just as a river has its clear headwaters and a fertile delta, so do opinions, notwithstanding any intervening missteps and uncertainties.
This is a shorter-than-usual post. One consequence of no longer asking why is no longer receiving answers, useful or otherwise, over which to opine.
Reminder: You can visit the Cycloid Fathom Technical Publishing website at cycloid-fathom.com and the gallery at cycloid-fathom.com/gallery.
Forthcoming posts (unless life intervenes)
Poesy past and present
……I am an iambic pentameter guy
Sched 2/12/2024
This area is beautiful
……To your eyes or mine?
Sched 2/19/2024
Tangents and more
…Be a circle or be square
Sched 2/26/2024
FINE!
……Just do it!
Sched 3/4/2024
Grace under pressure
……Ice and silicon, strange bedfellows
Sched 3/11/2024
Our Bollards and Lines
…mooring more than ships
Sched 3/18/2024
Déjà vu
…Can a new thought be old?
Sched 3/25/2024
