Political cult
Encyclopedia
Political cult is a term used to describe some groups that are generally considered to be on the political fringe. Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult
" (currently often used as a pejorative term according to some comparative religion scholars) is sometimes applied are religious
in nature, some are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on political action and ideology
.
or far-right
agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars. In their 2000 book On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
, Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth
discuss about a dozen organizations in the United States and Great Britain that they characterize as cults. In a separate article Tourish says that in his usage:
The term "political cult" has also been used to describe the "cult of personality
" in North Korea
(in a context that clearly describes practices more extreme than those in most countries with institutionalized leader cults).
and Gino Parente's National Labor Federation
(NATLFED) are examples of political groups described as "cults" that are based in the United States; another is Marlene Dixon's now-defunct Democratic Workers Party
(a critical history of the DWP is given in Bounded Choice
by Janja A. Lalich, a sociologist and former DWP member).
The "O"
, a small Marxist group in Minneapolis, is the subject of a memoir by ex-member Alexandra Stein. Organizations headed by Fred Newman
, such as the International Workers Party
and the New Alliance Party
, have been described as a cult by political critics such as Tourish and Wohlforth, Chip Berlet
, and the Anti-Defamation League
. Newman is involved in both politics and psychotherapy, and has described the cult claims as false and as politically motivated.
The followers of Ayn Rand
were characterized as a "cult" by economist Murray N. Rothbard during her lifetime, and later by Michael Shermer
. The core group around Rand was called the "Collective" and is now defunct (the chief group disseminating Rand's ideas today is the Ayn Rand Institute
). Although the Collective advocated an individualist philosophy, Rothbard claimed they were organized in the manner of a "Leninist" organization.
In Britain, the Workers Revolutionary Party, a Trotskyist group led by the late Gerry Healy
and strongly supported by actress Vanessa Redgrave
, has been described by others, who have been involved in the Trotskyist movement, as having been a cult or as displaying cult-like characteristics in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also described as such by Tourish and Wohlforth in their writings. In his review of Tourish and Wohlforth's book, Bob Pitt, a former member of the WRP concedes that it had a "cult-like character" but argues that rather than being typical of the far left, this feature actually made the WRP atypical and "led to its being treated as a pariah within the revolutionary left itself."
Workers' Struggle
(LO, Lutte ouvrière) in France, publicly headed by Arlette Laguiller
but revealed in the 1990s to be directed by Robert Barcia
, has often been criticized as a cult, for example by Daniel Cohn-Bendit
and his older brother Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, as well as L'Humanité
and Libération
.
guerrilla movement active in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s has been described variously as a "cult" and an intense "cult of personality." The Tamil Tigers have also been qualified as such.
The People's Mujahedin of Iran
, a leftist guerrilla movement based in Iraq, has been controversially described as a political cult and as a movement that is abusive towards its own members.
and Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation movement (which sponsors the Natural Law Party
), but such groups often clearly identify themselves as being religious organizations that are motivated primarily by spiritual concerns.
Falun Gong
, a spiritual movement in China, became highly politicized as a result of crackdown from the Chinese government in 1999, which officially branded it as a cult and began jailing and torturing its followers. Falun Gong protested through peaceful methods, such as protest actions overseas and the circulation of anti-communist political tracts and media critical of the Chinese government. The Chinese government has accused Falun Gong of committing acts of mass suicide, such as the controversial Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident, while Falun Gong and several Western critics accused the Chinese government of staging such acts as propaganda.
In his book Les Sectes Politiques: 1965-1995 (translation: Political cults: 1965-1995), French writer Cyril Le Tallec considered some religious groups as cults involved in politics, including the League for Catholic Counter-Reformation
, the Cultural Office of Cluny
, New Acropolis
, Sōka Gakkai, the Divine Light Mission
, Tradition Family Property (TFP)
, Longo-Mai, the Supermen Club and the Association for Promotion of the Industrial Arts (Solazaref).
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
" (currently often used as a pejorative term according to some comparative religion scholars) is sometimes applied are religious
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
in nature, some are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on political action and ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
.
Background
Groups that some writers have termed as "political cults," mostly advocating far-leftLeft-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
or far-right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars. In their 2000 book On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
On the Edge (book)
On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left is a non-fiction book about political cults, written by Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth.-Main points:...
, Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth
Tim Wohlforth
Timothy Andrew Wohlforth , is a United States former Trotskyist leader. Since leaving the Trotskyist movement he has become a writer of crime fiction and of politically oriented non-fiction....
discuss about a dozen organizations in the United States and Great Britain that they characterize as cults. In a separate article Tourish says that in his usage:
"The word cult is not a term of abuse, as this paper tries to explain. It is nothing more than a shorthand expression for a particular set of practices that have been observed in a variety of dysfunctional organisations."
The term "political cult" has also been used to describe the "cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
" in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
(in a context that clearly describes practices more extreme than those in most countries with institutionalized leader cults).
American Family Foundation Guidelines
Guidelines have been developed by the American Family Foundation (AFF) that the group suggests be used for making a provisional judgment as to whether a particular group might be a "political cult" rather than simply an ideological sect that uses flamboyantly extreme rhetoric and/or elicits a high level of voluntary commitment from its core members.- The group is preoccupied with making money and often elevates money-making duties above the group's ostensible ideological or religious goals. In a political cult, this would include excessive fund raising, especially by illegal means such as electoral campaign-finance fraud.
- The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations). In a political context, this would apply to cult-of-personality dictators, as well as other political leaders who strive for a position of authority free from oversight.
- The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group. In a political context, this could include criminal activities, including unprovoked violence against opponents.
- The group has an us-versus-them mentality that causes hostility towards, and/or conflict with, political opponents and the wider society to an irrational degree that usually undermines the cult's ostensible goals. Although non-cults, including mainstream political parties, also frequently encourage us-versus-them thinking, in the political cult it is carried to an extreme in which the entire world outside the cult is regarded either as the enemy or as pawns to be manipulated in the fight against the enemy; in turn, critics of the cult and other opponents are demonized in a manner that brooks no questioning from the cult's cadre.
- The group not only requires members to adhere to particular doctrines or a particular "line" (a feature of many non-cultic groups as well) but also strongly discourages or even bans any questioning or criticism of the behavior or instructions of the group's leadership, and often harshly punishes any members who persist in criticism even if such members are loyal to the "line."
- The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law. In the context of a political cult, this could be compared in some respects to Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's cult of personalityCult of personalityA cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
or NazismNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
's FuhrerprinzipFührerprinzipThe Führerprinzip , German for "leader principle", prescribes the fundamental basis of political authority in the governmental structures of the Third Reich...
.
Examples of groups that have been described as "political cults"
The LaRouche MovementLaRouche movement
The LaRouche movement is an international political and cultural network that promotes Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included scores of organizations and companies around the world. Their activities include campaigning, private intelligence gathering, and publishing numerous periodicals,...
and Gino Parente's National Labor Federation
National Labor Federation
The National Labor Federation is a network of local community associations, run exclusively by volunteers, that aim to organize workers excluded from collective bargaining protections by U.S. labor law...
(NATLFED) are examples of political groups described as "cults" that are based in the United States; another is Marlene Dixon's now-defunct Democratic Workers Party
Democratic Workers Party
The Democratic Workers Party was a United States Marxist-Leninist party based in California headed by former Professor Marlene Dixon, lasting from 1974-1986. It has been seen as an example of a political cult with Dixon serving as its charismatic leader....
(a critical history of the DWP is given in Bounded Choice
Bounded Choice
Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults is a nonfiction psychology book on cults, by Janja Lalich, Ph.D.. The book was published by University of California Press in 2004....
by Janja A. Lalich, a sociologist and former DWP member).
The "O"
The O (political group)
The O., short for "the Organization", also known as the C.O. or Cooperative Organization, was a Marxist-Leninist political group which grew out of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul food cooperative movement in the 1970s.-Origins:...
, a small Marxist group in Minneapolis, is the subject of a memoir by ex-member Alexandra Stein. Organizations headed by Fred Newman
Fred Newman
Frederick Delano "Fred" Newman was an American philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist, and creator of a therapeutic modality called Social Therapy.-Early life:...
, such as the International Workers Party
International Workers Party
The International Workers Party is supposedly a secretive Marxist political organization founded by controversial organizer, playwright and psychotherapist Fred Newman.-Origins:The history of the IWP is itself controversial...
and the New Alliance Party
New Alliance Party
The New Alliance Party was an American political party formed in New York City in 1979. Its immediate precursor was an umbrella organization known as the Labor Community Alliance for Change, whose member groups included the coalition of Grass Roots Women and the New York City Unemployed and...
, have been described as a cult by political critics such as Tourish and Wohlforth, Chip Berlet
Chip Berlet
John Foster "Chip" Berlet is an American investigative journalist, and photojournalist activist specializing in the study of right-wing movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, and paramilitary organizations...
, and the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
. Newman is involved in both politics and psychotherapy, and has described the cult claims as false and as politically motivated.
The followers of Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
were characterized as a "cult" by economist Murray N. Rothbard during her lifetime, and later by Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer
Michael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members...
. The core group around Rand was called the "Collective" and is now defunct (the chief group disseminating Rand's ideas today is the Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism is a 501 nonprofit think tank in Irvine, California that promotes Ayn Rand's philosophy, called Objectivism. It was established in 1985, three years after Rand's death, by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's legal heir...
). Although the Collective advocated an individualist philosophy, Rothbard claimed they were organized in the manner of a "Leninist" organization.
In Britain, the Workers Revolutionary Party, a Trotskyist group led by the late Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...
and strongly supported by actress Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, has been described by others, who have been involved in the Trotskyist movement, as having been a cult or as displaying cult-like characteristics in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also described as such by Tourish and Wohlforth in their writings. In his review of Tourish and Wohlforth's book, Bob Pitt, a former member of the WRP concedes that it had a "cult-like character" but argues that rather than being typical of the far left, this feature actually made the WRP atypical and "led to its being treated as a pariah within the revolutionary left itself."
Workers' Struggle
Workers' Struggle
Lutte Ouvrière is the usual name under which the Union Communiste , a French Trotskyist political party, is known, after the name of its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller has been its spokeswoman since 1973 and has run in each presidential election, but Robert Barcia was its founder and central...
(LO, Lutte ouvrière) in France, publicly headed by Arlette Laguiller
Arlette Laguiller
Arlette Yvonne Laguiller is a French Trotskyist politician. Since 1973, she has been the spokeswoman and the best known leader and perennial candidate of the Lutte Ouvrière political party...
but revealed in the 1990s to be directed by Robert Barcia
Robert Barcia
Robert Barcia, also known as 'Hardy' and Roger Girardot, was a French politician, leader of the Union Communiste Internationaliste , a Trotskyist organisation that is better known by the name of its weekly paper Lutte Ouvrière , which is also the name of the UCI's public party, whose spokeswoman is...
, has often been criticized as a cult, for example by Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a Franco-German politician, active in both countries. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and he was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge...
and his older brother Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, as well as L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
and Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
.
Armed movements
The Shining PathShining Path
Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...
guerrilla movement active in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s has been described variously as a "cult" and an intense "cult of personality." The Tamil Tigers have also been qualified as such.
The People's Mujahedin of Iran
People's Mujahedin of Iran
The People's Mujahedin of Iran is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran....
, a leftist guerrilla movement based in Iraq, has been controversially described as a political cult and as a movement that is abusive towards its own members.
Participation of non-mainstream religious movements in politics
Some religious groups that have been described variously as cults or new religious movements participate vigorously in politics, and thus could be easily confused with political cults. Such religious groups with a strong political bent include the Unification Church of Sun Myung MoonSun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
and Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation movement (which sponsors the Natural Law Party
Natural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...
), but such groups often clearly identify themselves as being religious organizations that are motivated primarily by spiritual concerns.
Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
, a spiritual movement in China, became highly politicized as a result of crackdown from the Chinese government in 1999, which officially branded it as a cult and began jailing and torturing its followers. Falun Gong protested through peaceful methods, such as protest actions overseas and the circulation of anti-communist political tracts and media critical of the Chinese government. The Chinese government has accused Falun Gong of committing acts of mass suicide, such as the controversial Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident, while Falun Gong and several Western critics accused the Chinese government of staging such acts as propaganda.
In his book Les Sectes Politiques: 1965-1995 (translation: Political cults: 1965-1995), French writer Cyril Le Tallec considered some religious groups as cults involved in politics, including the League for Catholic Counter-Reformation
League for Catholic Counter-Reformation
The League for Catholic Counter-Reformation , is a nationalist and ultramontane organization founded in 1967 by Georges de Nantes, a former abbot who was suspended a divinis on 25 August 1966...
, the Cultural Office of Cluny
Cultural Office of Cluny
The Cultural Office of Cluny, often named OCC is an Catholic-related association registered as a voluntary association, created in France by Olivier Fenoy in 1963...
, New Acropolis
New Acropolis
New Acropolis , New Acropolis (NA), New Acropolis (NA), (official name - Asociación Cultural Nueva Acrópolis. is a worldwide non-profit organisation founded in 1957 by Jorge Angel Livraga Rizzi (died 1991)...
, Sōka Gakkai, the Divine Light Mission
Divine Light Mission
The Divine Light Mission was an organization founded in 1960 by guru Shri Hans Ji Maharaj for his following in northern India. During the 1970s, the DLM gained prominence in the West under the leadership of his fourth and youngest son, Guru Maharaj Ji...
, Tradition Family Property (TFP)
American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property is a civic organization of traditional Roman Catholic inspiration...
, Longo-Mai, the Supermen Club and the Association for Promotion of the Industrial Arts (Solazaref).