As I finish reading
Going Clear,
by Wright Lawrence, an absolutely fascinating glimpse at the world of Scientology, I am struck by our need as a society, as a culture, to figure out whether Scientology is a cult or religion. We don’t like cults; we call them taboo. Ostensibly, we do this because we associate cults with brainwashing or some sort of mental and/or physical torture––coercive techniques to get one to believe in a person or an idea that one would presumably find nonsensical if not for having been tortured into thinking otherwise. That’s a fantastic reason not to endorse cults. However, we live in a
culture.
Isn’t that an interesting word? It’s got the word
cult
built right into it.
So ask myself, ‘Self?’ I ask me. ‘What is the difference between a cult and a culture?’ If you look up the definition of culture you find that yes, yes…
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