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Defining Cults - Structure: Relationship Between Leader and Followers
Cults are authoritarian in structure. The leader is regarded as the supreme authority although he may delegate certain power to a few subordinates for the purpose of seeing that members adhere to his wishes and rules. There is no appeal outside of the leader's system to greater systems of justice. For example, if a schoolteacher feels unjustly treated by a principal, he or she can appeal to another authority. In a cult, the leader has the only and final ruling on all matters.
Cults appear to be innovative and exclusive. Cult leaders claim to be breaking with tradition, offering something novel, and instituting the only viable system for change that will solve life's problems or the world's ills. For example, an Arizona-based group purports to have found immortality and tells its followers that they too will live forever - but only by staying with the leaders, known by the initials of their first names, CBJ (Charles, BernaDeane, and James). CBJ is reported to have thirty thousand followers worldwide. Meanwhile, another group professes that by living with the group and learning the secret breathing method members will eventually be able to live on air alone. Almost all cults make the claim that their members are "chosen," "select," or "special," while nonmembers are considered lesser beings.
Cults tend to have a double set of ethics. Members are urged to be open and honest within the group and to confess all to the leader. At the same time, members are encouraged to deceive and manipulate nonmembers. In contrast, established religions and ethical groups teach members to be hones and truthful to all and to abide by one set of ethics. The overriding philosophy in cults, however, is that the ends justify the means, a view that allows cults to establish their own brand of
Sayfa 9
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Defining Cults - Origin of the Group and Role of the Leader
In most cases, there is one person, typically the founder, at the top of the cult's structure, and decision making centers in him.
These leaders typically have the following characteristics.
Cult leaders are self-appointed, persuasive persons who claim to have a special mission in life or to have special knowledge. For example, leaders of flying-saucer cults often claim that beings from outer space have commissioned them to lead people to special places to await a spaceship. Other leaders claim to have rediscovered ancient ways to produce enlightenment or cure disease, while yet others claim to have developed inventive scientific, humanistic, or social plans that will lead followers to "new levels" of awareness, success, or personal and political power.
Cult leaders tend to be determined and domineering and are often described as charismatic. These leaders need to have enough personal drive, charm, or other pulling power to attract, control, and manage their flocks. They persuade devotees to drop their families, jobs, careers, and friends to follow them. Overtly or covertly, in most cases they eventually take over control of their followers' possessions, money, and lives.
Cult leaders center veneration on themselves. Priests, rabbis, ministers, democratic leaders, and leaders of genuinely altruistic movements keep the veneration of adherents focused on God, abstract principles, or the group's purpose. Cult leaders, in contrast, keep the focus of love, devotion, and allegiance on themselves. In many cults, for example, spouses are forced to separate or parents forced to give up their children as a test of their devotion to their leader.
Sayfa 8
Defining Cults - Definitions and Characteristics
I perefer to use the phrase "cultic relationships" to signify more precisely the processes and interactions that go on in a cult. A cultic relationship is one in which a person intentionally induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him or her for almost all major life decisions, and inculcates in these followers a belief that he or she has some special talent, gift, or knowledge.
For our purposes, the label 'cult' refers to three factors:
1. The origin of the group and role of the leader.
2. The power structure, or relationship between the leader (or leaders) and the followers.
3. The use of a coordinated program of persuasion (which is called thought reform, or, more commonly, brainwashing)
Sayfa 7
Defining Cults
Currently, depending on how one defines a cult, there are anywhere from three thousand to five thousand cults in the United States alone. Over the past two decades as many as twenty million people have been involved for varying periods of time in one or another of these groups. And not only are the cult members affected, but millions more family members and loved ones worry and wonder, sometimes for years, about what has happened to their relatives or friends.
Sayfa 5
Osmanlıların uygulamaya koyduğu ekonomik kurumlar son derece sömürücüydü. Toprak için özel mülkiyet söz konusu değildi, resmi olarak tümü devlete aitti. Toprak ve tarımsal ürünün vergilendirilmesi savaştan elde edilen ganimetle birlikte devlet gelirinin temel kaynağını oluşturuyordu. Buna karşın, Osmanlı devleti Ortadoğu’ya Anadolu’ya hâkim olduğu gibi ya da İspanyol devletinin Latin Amerika toplumuna hâkim olduğu ölçüde bile hâkim olamadı. Osmanlı devleti Arap Yarımadası’nda sürekli olarak Bedevilerin ve diğer kabilelerin meydan okumalarıyla karşılaştı. Ortadoğu’nun büyük kısmında yalnızca kalıcı bir düzen kurabilmekten değil aynı zamanda vergi toplayacak idari kapasiteden de yoksundular. Dolayısıyla becerebildikleri yoldan vergi toplasınlar diye bu hakkı başkalarına devretmek suretiyle işi şahıslara “havale ettiler”. Bu mültezimler özerk hale geldiler ve güçlendiler. Ortadoğu’da vergi oranları çok yüksekti; köylülerin ürettiğinin yarısı ile üçte ikisi arasında değişiyordu. Bu gelirin büyük kısmı mültezimlere gidiyordu. Osmanlı devleti bu bölgelerde kalıcı bir düzen sağlamayı başaramadığından mülkiyet hakları güvence altında olmaktan çok uzaktı ve silahlı gruplar bulundukları bölgelerin kontrolü için yarıştıklarından hukuksuzluk ve eşkıyalık almış yürümüştü. Örneğin Filistin’de durum öyle vahimdi ki, 16. yüzyıl sonundan itibaren köylüler en verimli toprakları bırakarak eşkıyaya karşı kendilerine daha fazla koruma sağlayacak dağlık bölgelere kaçtılar.
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun kentsel alanlarındaki sömürücü ekonomik kurumları bundan daha az boğucu değildi. Ticaret devlet kontrolündeydi ve meslekler loncalar ve tekeller tarafından katı bir biçimde düzenlenmişti. Sonuç, Sanayi Devrimi sırasında Ortadoğu’nun ekonomik kurumlarının sömürücü nitelikte olmasıydı. Böylece
