scooter
Gold Meritorious Patron
Been doing my usual eclectic reading of late and have just finished a biog of Hermann Goering, Nazi #2.
The thing that struck me was just how DM, Hubbard and Adolf had such a sway over their minions that none dare nay-say them so that they surrounded themselves with True Believers rather than competents who could do a proper job. Hitler doomed himself by listening only to his own voice, as did Hubbard and DM's been doing just that since Hisself took over.
The structures they created may allow someone of competence to briefly rise to the upper ranks but never to stay there. Only True Believers who would ignore their own consciences to follow their Guru could survive in such an atmosphere. And a fanatic is seldom capable of much other than destructive fanaticism.
Now if this were broadly true, then no cult could survive for any length of time unless it lost its lunatic devotion to literal interpretation of the "Sacred Scriptures" and the infallibility of the Guru and actually brought in non-fanatics into the ranks. This seems to have happened with the "mainstream" religions such as Christianity, Islam and even the Mormons, although all still have the small splinter cults that never seem to survive too long.
I remember every competent staff member who left and started a successful business just never fitted into the paradigm demanded to be a "successful" staff member, and every "successful" staff or SO exec was usually a screaming failure at every other facet of their lives. And, if they did leave the cult "sheltered workshop" environ, failed miserably as business folk, especially if they'd trained on the OEC/FEBC.
And I think it all comes back to just that one point - that cults by their very nature eliminate all but the Fanatic from their upper echelon and so commit slow suicide by incompetent Fanaticism.
After all, a Fanatic never has to study the world because he or she already knows everything about it from the Guru.
Your thoughts?
The thing that struck me was just how DM, Hubbard and Adolf had such a sway over their minions that none dare nay-say them so that they surrounded themselves with True Believers rather than competents who could do a proper job. Hitler doomed himself by listening only to his own voice, as did Hubbard and DM's been doing just that since Hisself took over.
The structures they created may allow someone of competence to briefly rise to the upper ranks but never to stay there. Only True Believers who would ignore their own consciences to follow their Guru could survive in such an atmosphere. And a fanatic is seldom capable of much other than destructive fanaticism.
Now if this were broadly true, then no cult could survive for any length of time unless it lost its lunatic devotion to literal interpretation of the "Sacred Scriptures" and the infallibility of the Guru and actually brought in non-fanatics into the ranks. This seems to have happened with the "mainstream" religions such as Christianity, Islam and even the Mormons, although all still have the small splinter cults that never seem to survive too long.
I remember every competent staff member who left and started a successful business just never fitted into the paradigm demanded to be a "successful" staff member, and every "successful" staff or SO exec was usually a screaming failure at every other facet of their lives. And, if they did leave the cult "sheltered workshop" environ, failed miserably as business folk, especially if they'd trained on the OEC/FEBC.
And I think it all comes back to just that one point - that cults by their very nature eliminate all but the Fanatic from their upper echelon and so commit slow suicide by incompetent Fanaticism.
After all, a Fanatic never has to study the world because he or she already knows everything about it from the Guru.
Your thoughts?