Cultism is a trap: Amway no different

Shyam

I am fascinated by certain (apparently fair-minded) individuals who keep publishing their casual observations of pernicious cultic groups ('like 'Amway') which have been presented externally as banal 'Direct Selling' or 'Multilevel Marketing Companies.' Unfortunately, what these generally well-intentioned, but naïve, observers have completely failed to grasp, is that pernicious cults are all essentially the same deception. They are presented externally as traditional associations. These can be arbitrarily defined by their instigators as almost any banal group ('religious', 'cultural' , 'political', 'commercial', etc.). However, internally, they are always totalitarian (i.e. they are centrally-controlled and require of their core-adherents an absolute subservience to the group and its leadership above all other persons). By their very nature, pernicious cults never present themselves in their true colours. Consequently, no one ever becomes involved with one as a result of his/her fully-informed consent.

The leaders of pernicious cults seek to control all information entering not only their adherents' minds, but also that entering the minds of casual observers. This is achieved by constantly denigrating all external sources of information whilst constantly repeating the group's reality-inverting key words and images, and/or by the physical isolation of adherents. To this end, cult leaders systematically categorize, condemn and exclude as unenlightened (stupid, clueless, etc.), negative (false, critical, sceptical, anti, etc.), impure, absolutely evil, etc., all free-thinking individuals and any quantifiable evidence challenging the authenticity of their imaginary totalitarian scenarios of control. Frighteningly, it was Adolf Hitler who observed that: 'the great strength of totalitarianism is that our opponents are forced to adopt our tactics.' Once you know this, descending into a puerile and abusive, two-dimensional slanging-match with an inflexible cult foot-soldier, like Mr. Scott 'Tex' Johnson, is revealed as a counter-productive exercise. Ironically, one of the things casual observers keep referring to, is how 'Amway attracts polarized opinions,' but this is actually the result of the alienating 'us versus them' fiction, which the billionaire bosses of the 'Amway' mob want the world to swallow as fact.

Unfortunately, Shyam, cultism is a trap. Obviously, anyone who only examines the bait in a trap and who remains unaware of its true purpose, risks getting caught themselves. Just like a mousetrap, the basic design for the cultic trap has remained the same down the centuries even if the presentation of the bait has become evermore sophisticated. Sadly, many commentators have found it impossible — when faced with the apparently illogical results of cultism — to abandon their existing academic, and professional, disciplines, which are anchored in the logic of the traditional world. Consequently, their understanding has often been made impossible by misplaced objectivity. However, it must be remembered that a counterfeit banknote might be 99.9 % perfect, but the bit that is not makes all of it a fake. Similarly, in order to have any chance of understanding cultism, it must be approached from the apparently subjective point of view that its results are always the product of a contagious deception, the victims of which unconsciously accept fiction as fact. Only then, can the phenomenon be examined with genuine objectivity. Once this vital principle has been learned, the apparently authentic words and images reflected by persons under the influence of cultism — like those printed on counterfeit banknotes — are revealed as dangerous distractions. They should never be taken at face value and, therefore, I try to remind your readers of this at all times. Any commentator who repeats the reality-inverting shielding-terminology of any cultic group, but without detailed qualification (or heavy irony), demonstrates that he/she remains at a pitifully low-level of understanding.

David Brear (copyright 2010)