"...these movements begin out of moral imperative and change once they achieve power and control. Goodness is an early posture. Later goodness is transformed into destruction as amply demonstrated by the Jonestown example. The struggle for power is one thing, but its attainment and subsequent applications quite another. Initially the identification of both problems and their solutions is oversimplified, thus offering the follower a quick answer to the existential dilemma created by questions such as where did I come from, why am I here, and where am I going. People are offered oversimplified answers that dispel fear created by doubt and uncertainty created by internal psychological conflict and external social forces. This has become particularly dangerous in the 20th century because of sophisticated communication technology and increasing expertise of the psycho-social sciences.
One way these forces operate is by discouraging critical thinking and moral speculation in favor of a prepackaged imagery and doctrine designed to create impressions rather than reveal substance, to capture people's hearts rather than stimulate their minds.
Polarization and overzealous fundamentalism, whether derived from movements that are religious, social, or political, right or left, radical or reactionary, psychoanalytic or humanistic, Christian, Muslim, or Jewish, can grip us with a particular intensity.
Perhaps it is not yet time for alarm, but surely we must learn to recognize leaders with autocratic tendencies before they attain power, before it is too late".
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Now, where do I get hold of a copy of that "Cult Leadership for Dummies" book? - it'd make a great leaving present to (belatedly) give Rawat!
