Terror Cults

Part 1 of 4 in the series Fight Club

Fight Club was one of the most controversial and talked-about films of the 1990s. Some critics expressed concern that the film would incite copycat behavior, such as that seen after A Clockwork Orange debuted in Britain nearly three decades previously. Following Fight Club’s release, several fight clubs were reported to have started in the United States. — Wikipedia

Anthony Stahelski in the March 2004 Journal of Homeland Security, notes that “terrorism researchers have compared terrorist groups to cults, and they have concluded that the cult model applicable to terrorist groups [Stephen J. Morgan, The Mind of a Terrorist Fundamentalist: The Psychology of Terror Cults (Awe-Struck E-Books, 2001)]“:

Der Fuehrer’s Face (c)WDP

Most cults center on a charismatic leader. Charismatic leaders have many of the following characteristics: physical presence, intelligence, experience, education and expertise, the ability to verbally and clearly articulate the vision and the mission, and, most important, a strong emotional appeal. Most joiners of cults respond to the leader’s message first at an emotional level, then later at the physical and intellectual levels. Joiners report that they have finally found someone who has the answers to life’s perplexing questions and who is therefore worthy of their total commitment [Thomas Robbins, Cults, Converts, and Charisma: The Sociology of New Religious Movements (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1988)].

In exchange for providing joiners with meaningful existences and for fulfilling their affiliative emotional needs, the leader requests and receives unquestioning obedience from the joiners. Long-term members of the group support the leader’s obedience pressure by applying conformity pressure on new joiners in order to forestall any deviation from the group’s mission or values. The joiners’ initial susceptibility to this intense obedience and conformity pressure makes them extremely vulnerable to the five-phase social psychological conditioning process used in violent cults.¹

Stahelski identifies five phases in the inculturation process of violent cult groups: depluralization, self-deindividuation, other-deindividuation, dehumanization, and demonization. Old Hickory’s Weblog notes points out:

It’s worth noting at this point that there’s nothing unusual or bizarre about the basic methods of influence that cult groups use. Charismatic leaders of the type he describes are also found in politics, churches and business, too. It’s the particular combination of processes that make a cult group distinct from other types of groups. It’s also important to recognize that cult groups are not always religious groups.…

Depluraization involves cutting off ones ties to the various groups by which individuals in society define the identity on a normal basis:

In stable, normal (non-crisis) societies, most individuals are pluralized – that is, they fulfill their affiliative needs by belonging to a variety of groups. None of these affiliations, with the possible exception of the family group, is absolutely essential to an individual’s self-concept.…

Self-deinviduation is a redefinition of the individual’s identity in the cult’s terms. Cult researchers Margaret Thaler Singer and Lanja Lalich have described the development of a “pseudopersonality” in which individuals conform themselves to the highly restricted environment of the cult. Stahelski describes the process this way:

Internally, all recruits are expected to give up any values, beliefs, attitudes, or behavior patterns that deviate from the group values and expectations. Deindividuated joiners give up their personal sense of right and wrong if it is different from that of the leader. Furthermore, the joiners’ broader view of reality – their view of how the past, present, and future fit together to create the modern social world – becomes aligned with that of the leader.

Other-deindividuation is the process in which, as Stahelski puts it, “All enemies become a homogeneous, faceless mass: they all look alike, think alike, and act alike.” Again, this is a normal human characteristic, the us vs. them feeling. Patriotism, solidarity with one’s own religious group, professional loyalties, all of these use the same process. It’s the combination with other factors that distinguish it in the cult context.

Dehumanization could probably be seen as part of the same process he calls “other-deindividuation.” He defines the “dehumanization” process this way:

All positive characteristics (for example, moral virtue, intelligence, responsibility, honesty, trustworthiness, reliability) are attributed to members of the “in” group, and all negative characteristics (moral degeneracy, stupidity, irresponsibility, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, unreliability) are attributed to members of the “out” group. Dehumanization occurs when the enemy and the enemy’s characteristics are associated with nonhuman entities, such as animals, vermin, filth, and germs. Nazi propaganda in the 1930s compared the Jews and their negative characteristics to rats and cockroaches.…

Demonization, the fifth phase of the social psychological conditioning process, occurs when cult members become convinced that the enemy is in league with the devil and cosmic evil. Since most cultures define “good” in comparison to “evil,” demonization is a widely available conditioning strategy. Referring to the United States as the “Great Satan” is an example of cultural demonization.²

Source: IsraelsMessiah.com

Today, “the Palestinian authority is transmitting a message to the younger generation: the goal of life is death,” reports the “Children of Jihad” news report. “Children are instructed: throw down your toys and replace them with rocks”:

The goal of this training is to program the children to be ready and willing to murder and kill of their own free will even if it means that they themselves will die.… The deliberate incitement of the children has gradually lost all restraints. The incitement reaches each household through televison and radio spots, it permeates the schools, and the textbooks are riddled with teachings of hate.

Teaching children to hate inundates them from all directions. Cartoons and characters in children’s magazines and newspapers remind them to throw stones. Photographs of… martyrs adorn every wall.… Children are taught not to fear death but to welcome it.…

In a society in which legitimization of child murderers becomes a part of its ideology then normative human morality no longer exists.… All of this has been orchestrated quite methodically by the Palestinian authority who, with malice of forethought and directed from above, have transformed children into political pawns.

The children are taught that suicide bombs are the only thing that terrifies the Israeli people and that they “have the right to do it.” Moreover, the children are taught that “after their suicide attacks, the man who makes it goes to highest estate in paradise” ³ where 72 beautiful virgins (or houris) – “in Muslim belief, women who live with the blessed in paradise” ⁴ – will “minister to their every need and desire.” ⁵

The “Children of Jihad” report notes a study conducted by a Palestinian psychologist who found “more than 50% of [Palestinian] children aged 6 to 11 dream of becoming suicide bombers who wear explosive belts.” The psychologist states that “in about 10 years a very murderous generation will come of age full of hatred and ready to die in suicide missions.” ⁶