Beka’s Reviews > The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them > Status Update

"Groups seek certainty. Communities make room for change.

Groups focus on control. Communities foster connection.

In Groups, the question is "how do I stay in?"
In Communities the question is "how do we stay with each other?"

"The shared vocabulary within a group can feel like home - but that intimacy can quickly shift into conformity."

"...That's what a group is at its core: humans with a shared belief, a mutual performance, a pact. When it's good, it's magic.

Whether it's a fandom, a workplace, a book club, a team, a marriage, found family, or a political cause, being part of something bigger than yourself can be profoundly fulfilling. (These can tap into our need to feel connected, be accepted, seen/validated.) But groups can also erase you."

Cults take advantage of this human need...

"Belonging isn't just a comfort, it's a core psychological need that shapes our development + protects our mental + physical health. In other words, we don't just *like* being in groups, we *need* them."

"Joy doesn't have to prove its worth to be important."

"Labor exploitation in the U.S. has been baked into the system for centuries, from slavery to modern day sweat shops.

American labor practices have a lot in common with what we see in high control groups, where people are expected to sacrifice their personal lives, health, + wellbeing for someone else's goals."

"Once you're isolated, it's a lot harder to see your way out."

"By keeping members running from task to task, meeting to meeting, cult leaders leave no room for independent thought or personal reflection. People get too tired to question anything.
The relentless pace ensures they're too busy to build connections with anyone outside who might challenge the group's control.

The pace also isolates them from themselves."

"Cults have long understood that busyness itself is labor, + that labor is a form of control. Control doesn't require putting up walls or moving to remote locations; sometimes all you need is an overpacked schedule.

By keeping members running from task to task, meeting to meeting, cult leaders leave no room for independent thought or personal reflection. People get too tired to question anything."

"There's nothing wrong w real, unprepared volunteering; it can be a great way to give back + create meaning in one's life, + it can be argued that there's something inherently anti-cult about removing labor from the confines of the cult of Capitalism.

But we need reasonable limits especially for kids, who aren't in a position to advocate for themselves. Service can cross the line into exploitation, in churches too"