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Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult" has been applied are religious in nature, a number are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on political action and ideology^{[citation needed]}. Groups labeled as "political cults," mostly advocating far-left or far-right agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars but are only a minute percentage of the total number of groups labeled as cults in the United States.^{[citation needed]} Indeed, allegations of cult-like practices exists for only about a dozen ideological extremist organizations, although vague charges have been leveled at a somewhat larger number.^[1]

Some purported religious cults participate in politics, and are often more effective at it than political groups are.^{[citation needed]} Since the political groups are motivated by a secular ideology (usually aimed at overthrowing society from the right or left), they tend to have less appeal with the general public and behave in a less pragmatic way than politically oriented religious cults.^{[citation needed]}

AFF Guidelines

Guidelines have been developed by the American Family Foundation^[2] that claim to provide a basis for making a provisional judgment as to whether a particular group might be a "political cult" rather than simply an ideological sect that uses flamboyantly extreme rhetoric and/or elicits a high level of voluntary commitment from its core members.

The group is preoccupied with making money and often elevates money-making duties above the group's ostensible ideological or religious goals. In a political cult, this would include excessive fund raising, especially by illegal means such as electoral campaign-finance fraud.
The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations). In a political context, this would apply to cult-of-personality dictators, as well as other political leaders who strive for a position of authority free from oversight.
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group. In a political context, this could include criminal activities, including unprovoked violence against opponents.
The group has an us-versus-them mentality that causes hostility towards, and/or conflict with, political opponents and the wider society to an irrational degree that usually undermines the cult's ostensible goals. Although non-cults, including mainstream political parties, also frequently encourage us-versus-them thinking, in the political cult it is carried to an extreme in which the entire world outside the cult is regarded either as the enemy or as pawns to be manipulated in the fight against the enemy; in turn, critics of the cult and other opponents are demonized in a manner that brooks no questioning from the cult's cadre.
The group not only requires members to adhere to particular doctrines or a particular "line" (a feature of many non-cultic groups as well) but also strongly discourages or even bans any questioning or criticism of the behavior or instructions of the group's leadership, and often harshly punishes any members who persist in criticism even if such members are loyal to the "line."
The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law. In the context of a political cult, this could be compared in some respects to Stalin's cult of personality or Nazism's Fuhrerprinzip.

The Effects of Partisan Politics

A recent study suggests that political partisans ignore facts that contradict their own sense of reality. According to the research article by Drew Westen and colleagues:^[3]

The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix.

The study suggests that a diminution of reason occurs during political decision-making.

"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged," Westen said. "Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones."

Notably absent were any increases in activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most associated with reasoning.

Simply put, the emotional considerations overwhelmed any rational thinking. If anything, the rational part of the mind worked in these subjects to rationalize the emotional conclusion that was reached in advance.

This study may help to illuminate why members of political cults are close-minded towards criticism of their founder, their organization and their goals. However, it would be a mistake to regard members of such groups as operating on the basis simply of emotionalism. Some political cults have elaborate ideologies (usually including at least a veneer of respect for secular rationalism and science), and members of such groups may be capable of thinking rationally and even brilliantly, albeit within narrow us-versus-them parameters.^{[original research?]}

Religious Influence in Political Parties

The website Theocracy Watch has a summary documenting^[4] the growth of influence of certain strains of fundamentalist Christianity in the leadership and philosophy of the Republican Party in the United States.

Examples of groups that have been described as "political cults"

The LaRouche Movement^[5] ^[6] and Gino Parente's National Labor Federation (NATLFED) ^[7] are examples of political groups that have been labeled as "cults" originating in the United States; another is Marlene Dixon's now-defunct Democratic Workers Party (a critical history of the DWP is given in Lalich's Bounded Choice ^[8]). The "O", a small Marxist group in Minneapolis, is the subject of the abovementioned memoir by ex-member Alexandra Stein.^[9] Organizations headed by Fred Newman, such as the International Workers Party and the New Alliance Party have been labeled as cults by opponents such as the Anti-Defamation League and others.^[10] ^[11] ^[12] Newman is involved in both politics and psychotherapy, and has described the cult claims as false and as politically motivated, destructive attacks by political opponents.^[13]^[14] The Ayn Rand Collective,^[15] ^[16] another U.S.-based group, had a quasi-political rightwing libertarian ideology bizarrely wedded to a communist-style system of ideological discipline, but since the professed goals were individual self-advancement and the dissemination of philosophical ideas, as opposed to the seeking of political power, it is probably best classified as a variation of the human-potential cult. In Britain, the Workers Revolutionary Party, a Trotskyist group led by the late Gerry Healy and strongly supported by actress Vanessa Redgrave, was also labeled as a political cult in the 1980s.^[17] ^[18]

References

^ Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0639-9
^ Guidelines, American Family Foundation
^ Drew Westen et al., "Neural Bases of Motivated Reasoning: An fMRI Study of Emotional Constraints on Partisan Political Judgment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election," Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18:11, pp. 1947-1958[1]
^ Summary, Theocracy Watch, website, Taking Over the Republican Party, "The Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.", President of the Alamo City Republican Women's club, 1993
^ John Mintz, "Ideological Odyssey: From Old Left to Far Right," The Washington Post, January 14, 1985[2]
^ Dennis King, Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, New York: Doubleday, 1989[3]
^ Jeff Whitnack, "Cadre or Cult? Gino Parente, NATLFED and the Provisional Party," The Public Eye, Vol. 4, Nos. 3-4, 1984 [4]
^ Janja A. Lalich, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004 [5]
^ Alexandra Stein, Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult, St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press, 2002.[6]
^ "A Cult by Any Other Name: The New Alliance Party Dismantled and Reincarnated," Anti-Defamation League Special Report, New York, 1995 [7]
^ "Fred Newman: Lenin as Therapist," Chapter 7 of Tourish and Wolhforth [8]
^ Chip Berlet, "Clouds Blur the Rainbow," pamphlet, Political Research Associates: Cambridge, MA, 1987[9]
^ Cook, Sean. Walking the Talk. Castillo Theatre of 2002: Newman vs. the Anti-Defamation League. (2003). The Drama Review 47, 3:78-98.
^ "Culture shock." New Therapist 24 (March/April 2003)
^ Murray N. Rothbard, "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult," 1972 (Murray Rothbard Archives)[10]
^ Michael Shermer, "The Unlikeliest Cult in History," Skeptic, vol. 2, no. 2, 1993 [11]
^ David North, Gerry Healy and His Place in the History of the Fourth International, Mehring Books, 1991. ISBN 0-929087-58-5. Does not define the group as a cult but is a valuable account of Healy's descent into personal authoritarianism which students of political cults can learn from.
^ Tourish and Wohlforth, "Gerry Healy: Guru to a Star" (Chapter 10), pp. 156-172, in On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000

External links

Tourish, Dennis: 'On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0639-9
Characteristics of a cult checklist
News Report on effects of partisan politics
Homepage of Doctor Drew Westen
Emory University
Theocracy Watch report on the expansion of religious influence - in the Republican Party in the United States
Dennis King's web site on political cults
Tourish and Wohlforth's On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
Archive of history of IWP with critical commentary

[1] Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0639-9

[2] Guidelines, American Family Foundation

[3] Drew Westen et al., "Neural Bases of Motivated Reasoning: An fMRI Study of Emotional Constraints on Partisan Political Judgment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election," Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18:11, pp. 1947-1958[1]

[4] Summary, Theocracy Watch, website, Taking Over the Republican Party, "The Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.", President of the Alamo City Republican Women's club, 1993

[5] John Mintz, "Ideological Odyssey: From Old Left to Far Right," The Washington Post, January 14, 1985[2]

[6] Dennis King, Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, New York: Doubleday, 1989[3]

[7] Jeff Whitnack, "Cadre or Cult? Gino Parente, NATLFED and the Provisional Party," The Public Eye, Vol. 4, Nos. 3-4, 1984 [4]

[8] Janja A. Lalich, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004 [5]

[9] Alexandra Stein, Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult, St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press, 2002.[6]

[10] "A Cult by Any Other Name: The New Alliance Party Dismantled and Reincarnated," Anti-Defamation League Special Report, New York, 1995 [7]

[11] "Fred Newman: Lenin as Therapist," Chapter 7 of Tourish and Wolhforth [8]

[12] Chip Berlet, "Clouds Blur the Rainbow," pamphlet, Political Research Associates: Cambridge, MA, 1987[9]

[13] Cook, Sean. Walking the Talk. Castillo Theatre of 2002: Newman vs. the Anti-Defamation League. (2003). The Drama Review 47, 3:78-98.

[14] "Culture shock." New Therapist 24 (March/April 2003)

[15] Murray N. Rothbard, "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult," 1972 (Murray Rothbard Archives)[10]

[16] Michael Shermer, "The Unlikeliest Cult in History," Skeptic, vol. 2, no. 2, 1993 [11]

[17] David North, Gerry Healy and His Place in the History of the Fourth International, Mehring Books, 1991. ISBN 0-929087-58-5. Does not define the group as a cult but is a valuable account of Healy's descent into personal authoritarianism which students of political cults can learn from.

[18] Tourish and Wohlforth, "Gerry Healy: Guru to a Star" (Chapter 10), pp. 156-172, in On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000

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@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
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-{{ originalresearch | article }}
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-Although the majority of groups to which the label "[[cult]]" is applied are [[new religious movement|religious]] in nature, a number are non-religious and focus either on secular [[self-improvement]] or on political action and [[ideology]]{{Fact|date=January 2007}}. Groups labeled as "political cults," mostly advocating [[Left-wing politics|far-left]] or [[Right-wing politics|far-right]] agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars but are only a minute percentage of the total number of groups labeled as cults in the [[United States]].{{Fact|date=January 2007}} Indeed, allegations of cult-like practices exists for only about a dozen ideological extremist organizations, although vague charges have been leveled at a somewhat larger number.<ref>Dennis Tourish and [[Tim Wohlforth]], ''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left'', Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0639-9</ref>
+Although the majority of groups to which the term "[[cult]]" has been applied are [[new religious movement|religious]] in nature, a number are non-religious and focus either on secular [[self-improvement]] or on political action and [[ideology]]{{Fact|date=January 2007}}. Groups labeled as "political cults," mostly advocating [[Left-wing politics|far-left]] or [[Right-wing politics|far-right]] agendas, have received some attention from journalists and scholars but are only a minute percentage of the total number of groups labeled as cults in the [[United States]].{{Fact|date=January 2007}} Indeed, allegations of cult-like practices exists for only about a dozen ideological extremist organizations, although vague charges have been leveled at a somewhat larger number.<ref>Dennis Tourish and [[Tim Wohlforth]], ''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left'', Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0639-9</ref>
-Some religious groups participate in politics, and are often more effective at it than political groups are.{{Fact|date=January 2007}} Since the political groups are motivated by a secular ideology (usually aimed at overthrowing society from the right or left), they tend to have less appeal with the general public and behave in a less pragmatic way than politically oriented religious cults.{{Fact|date=January 2007}}
+Some purported religious cults participate in politics, and are often more effective at it than political groups are.{{Fact|date=January 2007}} Since the political groups are motivated by a secular ideology (usually aimed at overthrowing society from the right or left), they tend to have less appeal with the general public and behave in a less pragmatic way than politically oriented religious cults.{{Fact|date=January 2007}}
-The term "political cult" has been promulgated largely by writers who themselves are former emmbers of Marxist Leninist organizations. Both Tourish and Wohlforth are former members of Trotskyist sects who now attack their former organizations and the Trotskyist movement in general.<ref>Bob Pitt, Review of Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, ''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left'', What Next Journal (online), No. 17, 2000 [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages//Back/Wnext17/Reviews.html]</ref> Sociologist Janja Lalich was for over a decade a leading member of the Marxist Democratic Workers Party.<ref>Janja A. Lalich, ''Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004 [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9497.html]</ref> Dennis King, a long-time critic of the [[Lyndon Larouche]] organization, was a member of the revolutionary Marxist Progressive Labor Party in the late 1960s.<ref>Fager, Chuck. Lyndon Burning. ''Washington City Paper'', July 14, 1989</ref> Alexandra Stein, who likewise spent a decade in a secretive Minneapolis Marxist group, entitled her memoir "Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult."<ref>Stein, Alexandra. ''Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult''. Minneapolis: North Star Press of St Cloud, Inc., 2002. ISBN: 0-87839-187-8</ref> Lalich, who contributed a blurb for Stein's memoir, had also praised the Tourish and Wohlforth book, saying:<blockquote>For those who still believe the old myth that all cults are religious, this study of political cults expands our understanding of these social formations.<ref>Janja Lalich, Ph.D, "On the Edge" (review), Cultic Studies Review (online journal), 2:2, 2003 [http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_bookreviews/bkrev_onedgeandtabernaclehate.htm]</ref></blockquote>
 ==AFF Guidelines==
 Guidelines have been developed by the [[American Family Foundation]]<ref>[http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm Guidelines], [[American Family Foundation]]</ref> that claim to provide a basis for making a provisional judgment as to whether a particular group might be a "political cult" rather than simply an ideological sect that uses flamboyantly extreme rhetoric and/or elicits a high level of voluntary commitment from its core members.
@@ Line 31: / Line 28: @@
 ==The Effects of Partisan Politics==
-{{Citecheck|date=January 2007}}
 A recent study suggests that political partisans ignore facts that contradict their own sense of reality. According to the research article by Drew Westen and colleagues:<ref>Drew Westen et al., "Neural Bases of Motivated Reasoning: An fMRI Study of Emotional Constraints on Partisan Political Judgment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election," ''Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience'', 18:11, pp. 1947-1958[http://www.psychsystems.net/lab/06_Wesen_fmri.pdf]</ref>
@@ Line 49: / Line 46: @@
 ==Religious Influence in Political Parties==
-{{Unbalanced}}
 The website Theocracy Watch has a [http://www.theocracywatch.org/taking_over.htm summary] documenting<ref>[http://www.theocracywatch.org/taking_over.htm Summary], Theocracy Watch, website, Taking Over the Republican Party, "The Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.", President of the Alamo City Republican Women's club, 1993</ref> the growth of influence of certain strains of fundamentalist Christianity in the leadership and philosophy of the Republican Party in the United States.
-==Examples of groups that have been labeled as "political cults"==
+==Examples of groups that have been described as "political cults"==
-{{Unbalanced}}
 The [[LaRouche Movement]]<ref>John Mintz, "Ideological Odyssey:
 From Old Left to Far Right," ''The Washington Post'', January 14, 1985[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/larouche/main.htm] </ref> <ref>Dennis King, ''Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism'', New York: Doubleday, 1989[http://dennisking.org/newamericanfascism.htm]</ref> and [[Gino Parente]]'s [[National Labor Federation]] (NATLFED) <ref>Jeff Whitnack, "Cadre or Cult? Gino Parente, NATLFED and the Provisional Party," ''The Public Eye'', Vol. 4, Nos. 3-4, 1984 [http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v04n3-4/Cadre_or_Cult_1.html]</ref> are examples of political groups that have been labeled as "cults" originating in the United States; another is Marlene Dixon's now-defunct Democratic Workers Party (a critical history of the DWP is given in Lalich's ''[[Bounded Choice]]'' <ref>Janja A. Lalich, ''Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004 [http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9497.html]</ref>). The "O", a small Marxist group in Minneapolis, is the subject of the abovementioned memoir by ex-member Alexandra Stein.<ref>Alexandra Stein, ''Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult'', St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press, 2002.[http://www.alexandrastein.com]</ref> Organizations headed by [[Fred Newman]], such as the [[International Workers Party]] and the [[New Alliance Party]] have been labeled as cults by opponents such as the [[Anti-Defamation League]] and others.<ref>"A Cult by Any Other Name: The New Alliance Party Dismantled and Reincarnated," Anti-Defamation League Special Report, New York, 1995 [http://www.adl.org/special_reports/nap.asp]</ref> <ref>"Fred Newman: Lenin as Therapist," Chapter 7 of Tourish and Wolhforth [http://www.ex-iwp.org/docs/2000/Chapter%207.htm]</ref> <ref>Chip Berlet, "Clouds Blur the Rainbow," pamphlet, Political Research Associates: Cambridge, MA, 1987[http://www.publiceye.org/newman/napmain.html]</ref>  Newman is involved in both politics and psychotherapy, and has described the cult claims as false and as politically motivated, destructive attacks by political opponents.<ref>Cook, Sean. Walking the Talk. Castillo Theatre of 2002: Newman vs. the Anti-Defamation League. (2003). ''The Drama Review'' 47, 3:78-98.</ref><ref>"Culture shock." ''New Therapist'' 24 (March/April 2003)</ref> The [[Ayn Rand Collective]],<ref>Murray N. Rothbard, "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult," 1972 (Murray Rothbard Archives)[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html]</ref> <ref>Michael Shermer, "The Unlikeliest Cult in History," ''Skeptic'', vol. 2, no. 2, 1993 [http://www.2think.org/02_2_she.shtml]</ref> another U.S.-based group, had a quasi-political rightwing [[libertarian]] ideology bizarrely wedded to a communist-style system of ideological discipline, but since the professed goals were individual self-advancement and the dissemination of philosophical ideas, as opposed to the seeking of political power, it is probably best classified as a variation of the human-potential cult. In Britain, the [[Workers Revolutionary Party]], a [[Trotskyist]] group led by the late [[Gerry Healy]] and strongly supported by actress [[Vanessa Redgrave]], was also labeled as a political cult in the 1980s.<ref>David North, ''Gerry Healy and His Place in the History of the Fourth International'', Mehring Books, 1991. ISBN 0-929087-58-5. Does not define the group as a cult but is a valuable account of Healy's descent into personal authoritarianism which students of political cults can learn from.</ref> <ref>Tourish and Wohlforth, "Gerry Healy: Guru to a Star" (Chapter 10), pp. 156-172, in ''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left'', Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000</ref>