In a Similar Vein.

I had started something last night, and deleted it. Then, this afternoon, I had a All-Hallows-Eve inspired thought, vamping on the theme of ZOMBIES. But I decided to dial it back for something somewhat less allegorical and perhaps a little more real-world-ish.

So, courtesy of the fine folk at Wiki, I present a chunk of their article concerning CULTS:


Theories about the reasons for joining a cult

Michael Langone gives three different models regarding joining a cult 30:

"The definitional ambiguity surrounding the term cult has fueled much controversy regarding why people join cults and other unorthodox groups. Three apparently conflicting models attempt to account for conversion to unorthodox groups. The deliberative model, favored by most sociologists and religious scholars, says that people join because of what they think about the group. The psychodynamic model, favored by many mental health professionals with little direct experience with cultists, says that people join because of what the group does for them-namely, fulfill unconscious psychological needs. The thought reform model, favored by many mental health professionals who have worked with large numbers of cultists, says that people join because of what the group does to them- that is, because of a systematic program of psychological manipulation that exploits, rather than fulfills, needs."

According to Gallanter11, typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest.

Jeffrey Hadden summarizes a lecture named "Why Do People Join NRMs?" (a lecture in a series related to the sociology of new religious movements12) as follows:

Belonging to groups is a natural human activity;

People belong to religious groups for essentially the same reasons they belong to other groups;

Conversion is generally understood as an emotionally charged experience that leads to a dramatic reorganization of the convert's life;

Conversion varies enormously in terms of the intensity of the experience and the degree to which it actually alters the life of the convert;

Conversion is one, but not the only reason people join religious groups;

Social scientists have offered a number of theories to explain why people join religious groups;
Most of these explanations could apply equally well to explain why people join lots of other kinds of groups;

No one theory can explain all joinings or conversions;

What all of these theories have in common (deprivation theory excluded) is the view that joining or converting is a natural process.

Stark and Bainbridge have questioned the utility of the concept of conversion. They suggest, instead, that the concept of affiliation is a more useful concept for understanding how people join religious groups.13


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

And a link on that page will bring you to the following:

Self-deception

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and argument.

It has been argued that humans are without exception highly susceptible to self-deception, as everyone has emotional attachments to beliefs. Some evolutionary biologists, such as Robert Trivers, have even suggested that, because deception is such an important part of human behaviour (and animal behaviour generally), an instinct for self-deception can give a person a selective advantage: if someone can believe their own "lie" (i.e., their presentation that is biased toward their own self-interest), the theory goes, they will consequently be better able to persuade others of its "truth."

This notion is based on the following logic. In humans, awareness of the fact that one is acting deceptively often leads to telltale signs of deception. Therefore, if self-deception enables someone to believe their distortions, they will not present such signs of deception and will therefore appear to be telling the truth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-deception


And even further, a link on that page leads to this list:

List of cognitive biases

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Cognitive bias is distortion in the way we perceive reality (see also cognitive distortion).
Some of these have been verified empirically in the field of psychology, others are considered general categories of bias.
anchoring
androcentric bias
anthropic bias
anthropocentric bias
attribution, attributional bias
fundamental attribution error
group attribution error
availability error
bandwagon effect
Barnum effect
base rate neglect
behavioral confirmation
belief bias
belief perseverance
bias blind spot
clustering illusion
confirmation bias
conjunction fallacy
contrast effect
cultural bias
dilution effect
disconfirmation bias
egocentric bias
endowment effect
expectancy effect
experimenter's regress
false consensus effect
framing effect
gambler's fallacy
group-serving bias
halo effect
hindsight bias
hostile media effect
hyperbolic discounting
illusion of control
illusion of validity
illusory correlation
impact bias
inequity aversion
infrastructure bias
ingroup bias
just-world phenomenon
Kuleshov effect
Lake Wobegon effect
logical fallacy
loss aversion
matching bias
media bias
memory bias
mere exposure effect
misinformation effect
negative perception of the color black
negativity effect
notational bias
outgroup homogeneity bias
overconfidence effect
pathetic fallacy
peak-end rule
physical attractiveness stereotype
picture superiority effect
planning fallacy
positivity effect
preference reversal
primacy effect
priming
projection bias
pseudocertainty effect
pseudo-opinion
publication bias
recency effect
regression fallacy
reporting bias
risk-aversion
rosy retrospection
sample bias
selection bias
selective perception
self-deception
self-serving bias
serial position effect
spacing effect
statistical bias
status quo bias
sunk cost effects
trait ascription bias
tunnel vision
valence effect
Von Restorff effect
wishful thinking
worse-than-average effect
Zeigarnik effect
Common theoretical causes of some cognitive biases:
attribution theory, especially:
salience
cognitive dissonance, and related:
impression management
self-perception theory
heuristics, including:
availability heuristic
representativeness heuristic
Other cognitive biases:
list of memory biases
optical illusion
auditory illusion
touch illusion
carbon chauvinism
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
[edit]

References


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Yes I am way short on my own commentary. Still dealing with various forms of burn-out here. But given the theme I have been working on, I mean to say that these ideas are related to how obnoxious Partisan Politics have become.

I know, I know. The major parties/movements are not exactly cults, and yet I do think there is often a cultish feel to the way they behave and appear. But for better or worse, I believe the leaders don't have to work all that hard for people to swallow the core congitive biases required for something that is really an artificial, if real seeming to some, sense of specialness, and identity.

The people who are likely to get off on that make-believe shit, are already wired that way. Just like the skilled con man plays off the greed of the mark that is already present in the mark's personality, political leaders manipulate the distorted sense of self that the rank and file already possess.

Most politicians ain't all that damn smart and crafty to begin with. The can't create anything, save some more smoke and illusion. But as my academic theatre courses taught me, the success of the performance greatly depends on the audience's willingness to "Suspend Disbelief."

Once the audience snaps out of that (usually when the performers are really performing badly) the illusion is lost.

And no, I am not going to even mention any specific illusions (that I see) that are failing.

I leave that, dear reader, to you.