Joining the Right Cult
Like many of the most important sitches we’ve addressed through the years, this one was also inspired by a farm animal on Twitter.
This goat’s tweet led me to watch “The Vow,” a docuseries about the modern day pyramid scheme turned sex cult NXIVM (nex-EE-um), told from the perspective of a former “high-ranking” member. Truly fascinating stuff.
NXIVM is a classic “charismatic leader recruits disciples by babbling about self-help pseudo-science and, for a substantial fee, allows his most loyal disciples to learn and regurgitate the babble to a larger and larger group of marks, from which the charismatic leader selects individuals to coerce into a secret sex cohort,” situation. A tale as old as time. But, NXIVM’s specific blend and sequence was decidedly modern and American.
We are in an era and society where self-promotion is encouraged, and where accumulating wealth is seen as one of the most important signs of success, especially when done quickly and “independently.” It is also now easier than ever for ideas to spread, regardless of validity (case in point). As our social networks become more diffuse and ephemeral, many are seeking community in non-traditional spaces. It seems the temperature is right for cult-like business ventures to flourish.
But which one should you join?
The definition of a cult is somewhat slippery and continues to evolve. Originally the term referred to religious practices devoted toward a venerated holy figure, such as the cult of a Catholic saint. It was not used as a pejorative. This started to change in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, where “new religious movements” were common. Many of these groups were counter-cultural, and a few were downright sociopathic, so the tone of the word began to shift. The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) recently described cults as,
“a group…exhibiting a great or excessive devotion…to some person, idea, or thing, and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control designed to advance the goals of the group’s leader, to the…detriment of members, their families, or the community.”
The fact that cults employ, “unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control…to the detriment of members,” is, in large part, what distinguishes them from other organizations with powerful leaders or compelling ideas. But the above description still leaves much up to interpretation. When do standard techniques of persuasion and control implemented by corporations, such as paying workers by the hour or limiting the amount of time for parental leave, become unethical? And is it “to the detriment” of workers in a company if the CEO makes 200x more than them?
Multi-level marketing (MLM) organizations test these boundaries. MLMs are companies that recruit individuals (often known as distributors or associates) to earn commissions on the sale of a product or service, while also incentivizing those salespeople to recruit more people to participate. MLMs are, in most places, a legal form of a pyramid scheme. Associates earn money when down line distributors (members they recruited) make sales. Participants often have to purchase products and marketing materials up front, so some of an MLM’s revenue comes directly from the pockets of their independent salespeople. The vast majority of MLM participants (99% by some estimates) don’t make any money.
Don’t join an MLM, even if it seems great. That’s the point.
The subtle difference between MLMs and pyramid schemes, which often has to be argued in court, is a matter of proportion; pyramid schemes make the large majority of their money from participants, whereas MLMs make enough of their money from the sale of actual products or services to argue that they are not pyramid schemes. Therefore, pyramid schemes collapse as they are, by design, unsustainable, while some MLMs have been in business for decades.
An example is Amway (a fitting portmanteaux of “American way”), founded in 1959 by Richard DeVos (father-in-law of our ex-secretary of education). Like most MLMs, the founders and a few early associates have become incredibly wealthy, while the overwhelming majority of other participants have not benefited. Amway is one of the first well-known examples of an MLM and is also one of the first accused of being cult-like. Former Amway distributor Stephen Butterfield published a book about his experience in 1985 called, Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise. In it, Butterfield writes that Amway,
“sells a marketing and motivational system, a cause, a way of life, in a fervid emotional atmosphere of rallies and political religious revivalism.”
Business ideas blended with techniques of group persuasion and control, spread on a platform of religious fervor or new age awareness, and topped with a special sauce of fraudulence. NXIVM dealt in psychoanalytical executive leadership workshops; Amway deals in overpriced detergents. Amway’s founders leveraged power over group members to generate massive wealth, which they now spend on conservative lobbying; NXIVM’s founder leveraged his power over group members for sex. Potato, potato.
You can cross those two off; definitely not the right cults to join.
Another recent and horrifyingly prominent example of this “American way,” is that of our former president, his corrupt business practices, and his fervent base of supporters. He has certainly created a cult of personality, and, perhaps instinctively, uses tactics of group persuasion to his violent and self-serving ends.
The structure of Trump’s influence, though always disorganized, does incorporate elements of a malignant, poorly run MLM or pyramid scheme. One of his business’s main revenue streams has been franchising the brand to other hospitality organizations without producing any tangible product or service. Within his political and social spheres, “group members” often devote increasing amounts of time and energy toward furthering the former president’s personal objectives, usually to the detriment of their reputations, and without financial compensation. Anyone questioning him is met with ridicule and excommunication. Whatever.
Loosely organized, manic-American, social-media-facilitated, bigoted, cult-like movements are reproducing at an alarming rate. QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that rose from the same stew as our former president, similarly misshapen and overcooked. It isn’t worth getting into what they actually believe, which is a paranoid mess of their greatest fears and most sickening desires. But the QAnon movement is a potent example of how impressionable people can be when they are searching for answers and for purpose and for community. I think @TheOnlineGoat put it best:
Surely there must be some better option… maybe the cult of consumerism?
The free market has been portrayed for decades as the on-going answer to what ails us. Firms will hire, employees will work, consumers will buy, utility will be maximized, forever and ever. A nice story about a nice theory. And, of course, with substantial elements of truth. But, people exhibit an “excessive devotion” to this economic theory, which has employed “manipulative techniques of persuasion” to advance the goals of those at the top of the pyramid, often “to the detriment of members, their families, or the community.”
By living in the good ‘ol U.S. of A., and generally participating in the status quo, we’re a part of this one, willingly or not. I’m wearing brand new sweatpants right now, and they’re great. But, I’d probably have as meaningful of a life, with as deep of relationships, experiencing as joyous of moments, even if I didn’t have a choice between twelve options of grey sweatpants. Even if I only had a couple of options and they weren’t quite as magically soft as this current pair. And even if the online cues hadn’t convinced me that I could use another pair, just in case I spill sauce on this one, or maybe in that navy blue… and even if I didn’t see people on TikTok wearing a variety of pairs, in different colors, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to own at least a few… In fact, thinking this through, not only could I use another pair, I demand it! I demand another pair of pants to add to the pile in my closet. This is my demand! Now, some “innovative” new sweatpants company that has “disrupted” the industry must supply me what I demand! No, of course I don’t care about cost. Yes, I’ll wait in line. And this is a win-win, because, again, I get what I need, what I demand, and they get my “money.”
I guess it’s not really a cult after all. Just a way to set prices and distribute grey sweatpants efficiently. And I guess sweatpants aren’t hurting anybody… Actually, I know a friend who would like a pair or two of soft, grey pants. Let me get him in on this.
