Even small cults are a serious cost on the world economy, to victims, their families, employers, friends, and credit-card companies.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I suppose the real cult things now are independent films made for a million pounds.
I suspect that a substantial fraction of human problems in the world today, not just cults, result from the mismatch between the current environment and the environment in which we evolved.
I think there's a preoccupation with the American market to make excuses and justify its past. If it isn't current, it means somebody has to make an excuse for it. If it's 'cult,' it gives it a sense of illegitimate legitimacy.
On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable.
This may sound insulting to some of my cult studies friends, but there's a lot of cult studies people who ignore, shall we say, the wider canvas - because they simply don't know about its existence or they don't know how it operates.
I mean, not wanting to be flip about it, but even within a corporation, you get sort of cult-like behaviors sometimes.
Many cults start off with high ideals that get corrupted by leaders or their board of advisors who become power-hungry and dominate and control members' lives. No group with high ideals starts off as a 'cult'; they become one when their errant ways are exposed.
What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.
Nobody has a bigger cult than Warren Buffett.
A cult following is a nice way of saying very few people like you.