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Words can be used in many different ways. The implication of a word can mean different thing to different people. For some, words can be offensive and impolite. For others, words can be empowering and motivational. The term "cult" is a term with a negative connotation to it. The term cult is no longer used to describe religious groups with unique beliefs. This term's connotations brings to mind groups that cause mayhem and disorder. This term was originally used to describe groups of people that have similar beliefs towards a particular figure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term cult is "a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object." In everyday usage, Cult is a term that …show more content…
Religion has a similar meaning compared to cult. The word cult evokes feelings of violence and torture while the word religion brings to mind peace and spirituality. Both words can describe people coming together for one common idea. Some of the world's major religions started out as cults. Society accepts Christianity, Islam, and other belief systems as religions compared to cults. It is the few bad organizations that give the word cult a bad connotation to it. It is the society that characterizes cults as those extremist groups that do despicable things. The difference between religion and cult is the connotation, one is good the other is bad. Furthermore, the reason people join cults is because they offer connections, a feeling of identity, and an opportunity. People who feel shunned from society join cults to feel acceptance towards something. Cults reprogram the way people see the world. You will see cult do bad things but in their mind, they are doing it for the greater good for their cult's beliefs. The people in cults find their identity and have an opportunity to make a contribution to the good of their cult. Cults usually induce powerful emotions of fear and guilt toward their member in order for them to do certain
According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself.
Some say that cults are all religious and work together, in fact the definition of a cult is “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object”, yet this can vary. Cults are not all religious or trying to reach a spiritual goal and in a lot of cases it is mostly all about one goal that is completely derived off his followers. Most cult leaders are so infatuated with their goals that they truly believe the psychological damage they are causing is good for the world (Cults). As seen in Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate, cults tend to use psychological skills to torment, manipulate and brainwash their members to grow stronger and reach the leader’s ultimate goal.
Imagine living in a society where everything is uniform. Anything you wear, eat or think is controlled. Then you realize that your life is not actually yours. This sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Without knowing it, everyone dreams of the same things in life; the perfect job, the perfect family, or the perfect house. We may not all agree to this, but the fact is that we all dream the same dream. In some way, we are all part of one big “cult” because our desires are similar to one another. When the word “cult” comes to mind, it has a negative connotation. American society makes most of its profits by the use of advertisements. In Kalle Lasn’s essay “The Cult You’re In,written in 1996, he uses rhetorical tactics such as ethos, pathos, and logos to illustrate how ads increase a person’s desire for goods and services that he or she may not want. There are some aspects of as in his essay that are rhetorically effective; however, there are some aspects of his essay that are not.
..., to note that there seems to be no adverse effects while a person is in a cult, as their levels of stress goes down and they seem happier. Overall, the cult mentality is one that continues to be an enigma to society today.
Society strives to feel a sense of belonging. We want to be a part of something that shares the same beliefs as us. We spend our time trying to place ourselves in a group to satisfy these needs, whether it is in a hobby club, a group of friends, or religion. Some people go to more extreme measures and find this in what we call a cult. According to Henslin, a cult is a new or different religion whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion. (2013:405) Cults are often identified with the ideas of mass murder, deviant behaviors, unusual beliefs, and extremely devoted members. Cults are also highly known for their leaders. The leaders of cults usually are the ones that portray the image for the entire group. Successful cults take a strong-minded and, according to Max Weber, charismatic leader.
Merriam Webster’s Collegiate dictionary defines cult as: 1 : formal religious veneration : Worship. 2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents. 3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents. 4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>. 5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion.
For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.
Cults entice people whom by nature want to belong to a group and make it hard for them to leave by altering their thought processes. Those in the psychology field have defined what makes up a cult, have determined what draws individuals in and have recognized the effects that a cult can have on
Cult is a “system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.” (Sopko). There are different cults all across the world. Cults have distinctly different beliefs and devotions. For instance, some cults that are formed to follow a particular real life figure, and other cults are formed to follow (or worship) a spiritual being that might be part of a certain organized religion. One example of a cult would be the KKK (Ivan).
A cult is defined as a social group or a social movement under one charismatic leader. It maintains a belief system, which includes a transformation of a group member. Members of the group have a high level of commitment to the leader, members, and beliefs (Lalich). An additional definition to consider is from the American Journal of Psychotherapy:
Although cults have become a very common practice in our society, not many people actually know what a cult is. A cult is a group that demonstrates an excessive dedication to an idea, person or thing. Cults will conduct manipulative and persuasive behavior to advance the goals of the leader (Langone). There are many different types of cults, but they usually fall into four categories: Religious, Commercial, Self Help and Counselling or Political. Many people mistake religions as cults, but that is not the case. Religious cults are cults that center around a belief system as many common religions do, but they are categorized as a cult because of their practices and mind control. Common religions do not practice these techniques. Commercial cults are those that are interested in gaining money. These cults use their scare tactics and mind control techniques to get members to give them money and even work for them. Self Help and Counselling cults are centered around a business that has programs designed to help people by counselling them. By taking their courses, members are told they will become better people. This of course is not the case and these cults are inte...
The structure itself of the organisation is least like the structure of a church, as they are very loosely organised and structured, with very little leadership. In terms of membership, cults are not as exclusive of sects as they are accepting and open to all individuals from all levels of society, with members being recruited through self-selection, conversion or by being born into the cult. Because of the lack of commitment cults require, many often tend to believe them to be ‘short lived’, as it means members can
One of the most important resources of any organization is its employees, the human resource. This makes it very important that these resources are properly managed; so that they thrive and grow along with the organization. People stream defines performance management as “A process for establishing a shared workforce understanding about what is to be achieved at an organizational level. It is about aligning the organizational objectives with the employees’ agreed skills, competency requirements, development plans and the delivery of results. The emphasis is on improvement, learning and development in order to achieve the overall business strategy and to create a high performance work force”. The performance management process involves various stages such as goal setting, skills development, performance measuring against the set goals, mentoring/coaching to enable employees to focus and achieve their goals followed by assessment of performance and any further development plans as required. Let us look at these steps one by one.