Ebook: On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left

A fresh analysis of intense political activism and cultism, this is the first book to document the extent of political cults on both the right and left and explain their significance for mainstream political organizations.

The authors outline the defining characteristics of cults in general, and analyze the degree to which a variety of well-known movements fall within the spectrum of cultic organizations.

We are all familiar with the idea of cults that are religious (e.g. Children of God), suicidal (e.g. Jonestown) or homicidal (e.g. Aum, in Japan). However, no previous book has looked at a variety of intensely active political organisations to see whether they could also be usefully understood as cults. Tim and I have applied basic principles from ma variety of social science disciplines, to a variety of well-known organisations on the left and right. We have also looked at some psychotherapy organisations with a political agenda (e.g. Re-evaluation Counselling, aka Co-Counselling), to discern why it is that people become embroiled in their often harmful activities. Anyone who has ever bought something they didn't really need knows that we can all be manipulated. The result combines personal tragedy and waste, with the emergence of frenetic groups that are at best a nuisance and at worst a danger to society.

Thus, this book shows that gurus who manipulate our inherent vulnerability to the process of social influence can also be found in the sphere of politics. We argue that growing disillusionment with the political process means such groups (e.g. far right militia groups in the USA) can damage the political process and the wider society. It is vital that more people understand how cults can acquire influence, and hence resist their often-malign influence. There have been cases before of cults acquiring significant social influence: this book is a wake up call today, to avert similar tragedies occurring in the future. Its message will I hope resonate with people in may other contexts as well, enabling us all to identify danger signs in any group to which belong, before it is too late. This book is a wake up call and will be useful, we hope, to many people.

The book covers such individuals and groups as Lyndon LaRouche, Fred Newman, Ted Grant, Marlene Dixon, the Christian Identity movement, Posse Commitatus, Aryan Nation, militias, and the Freemen. It explores the ideological underpinnings that predispose cult followers to cultic practices, along with the measures cults use to suppress dissent, achieve intense conformity, and extract extraordinary levels of commitment.

Dennis Tourish is Reader in Communication Management at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and the author of The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective.

Tim Wohlforth's writings include The Pink Tarantula, a short story collection; Harry, a thriller; and Epitaph for Emily, a Jim Wolf mystery. He made Otto Penzler's Distinguished Mystery Stories list twice, is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and received a Certificate of Excellence from the Dana Literary Society.