The Cult

In a Berlin museum, a controversial exhibition entitled “Hitler and the German People” is on display. Well over seven decades later, Germany is still struggling to deal with the events which followed Adolf hitler’s rise to power. His popularity was due to a mix of the economic climate in Germany, his personality, and his propaganda machine. As we can see from recent world history, if people are poor or see themselves as victims of some kind, a leader can take full advantage of their vulnerability and coerce them into believing or doing whatever they are instructed to do.


In general, people are surprisingly malleable. I’ve previously mentioned some of the famous psychology experiments which demonstrated this fact. This episode of a psychology series presented by Philip Lombardo (one of the organizers of the Stanford prison experiment) discusses cult behaviour, and how it can be induced:



Early on in the video, a technique known as thought stopping is introduced. Subjects are taught to exclude independent thoughts in order to conform and submit to a leader. This and other more subtle techniques are used against ordinary people everyday. After watching the video, consider how politicians, media organizations, religious leaders and corporations use the same methods to try to steer our thoughts and opinions. How easily do we turn against other groups of people? How easily are we convinced that we need to buy a new product?

This topic is huge; it concerns the torture of enemy combatants, police brutality, racism, consumerism – the list goes on. Those in control who stand to benefit are well aware of the effects of their actions. If we are to become more than pawns on a giant chessboard, we have to recognize these attempts to control our behaviour. We need to learn to review information objectively. We need to find ways to work together instead of dividing into exclusive groups and looking for a convenient scapegoat. Until we are capable of this, we constantly risk another repeat of the darker chapters of human history.