The words of Late Margaret Singers strikes a chord when you look at the topic of this write-up. She said “Everyone is influenced and persuaded daily in various ways, but the vulnerability to influence varies”. The ability to fend off persuaders is reduced when one is rushed, stressed, uncertain, lonely, indifferent, uninformed, distracted, or fatigued.
No one type of person is prone to become involved with cults. About two-thirds of those studied have been normal young persons induced to join groups in periods of personal crisis, such as broken romance or failures to get the job or college of their choice. Vulnerable, the young person affiliates with a cult offering promises of unconditional love, new mental powers, and social utopia.
For the purpose of this write-up, we will be focusing on how cultists are recruited in schools, who are those categories of people susceptible to their antics?
First off, it is pertinent to note that those who join them in schools do not have one particular characteristic. They can be the most elated students’ school or the dullest students in class; they can be the best students in school or the socially active in school. It is pertinent to know that what makes you susceptible to their attack is your vulnerability.
Cult recruitment reaches out with malign intent and traps its victims with deception. The true nature of the group is never ever discussed up front. One cannot join a group to aid them in their “search” if they do not know what the group is actually about.
Deception is their hallmark, used at every level from recruitment, to thought control, to contact with the outside. It is their very life’s blood and the primary attribute that marks them as distinct from mainstream, and non-destructive groups.
Two main aspects seem to be predominant in making a person vulnerable to cult recruitment. The first is that they are between substantial life affiliations. These are times such as between college and a job, traveling for an extended period, arriving at a new location, recently rejected, fired, or divorced. Any time that a person does not have a compelling connection in their life, they are extremely vulnerable to the seeming familial-ness of cultic recruitment. The second aspect is that of depression. A person suffering from depression that is not completely debilitating is very malleable and easily soothed by the honey coating of cultic deception. These groups seem to offer nearly instant, often simplistic and focused, solutions to the myriad of problems daunting us. In the Psychiatric Times, Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., put forth the following list of aspects that are most often present in those who succumb to cultic enticements;
• A high level of stress or dissatisfaction
• Lack of self-confidence
• Unassertiveness
• Gullibility
• Desire to belong to a group
• Low tolerance for ambiguity
• Naive idealism
• Cultural disillusionment
• Frustrated spiritual searching
• Susceptibility to trance-like states
With this foundation, we will be able to narrow it down in our next write-up how it has contributed to cramming. Do stay tune, more is coming your way from Etcsines.
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You might like:
- Campaign 1: Eradicating the Cramming System in Nigeria Educational Sector (ETCSINES)
- Campaign 2: Eradicating the Cramming System in Nigeria Educational Sector (ETCSINES)
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