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Your cult had radical beliefs but so did abolitionists in the early 1800s. The political meaning of the world radical traces back to a British movement of, as
by eduction 3y ago
Your cult had radical beliefs but so did abolitionists in the early 1800s.
The political meaning of the world radical traces back to a British movement of, as Wikipedia puts it, “the late 18th century to support parliamentary reform, with additional aims including lower taxes and the abolition of sinecures.”
Parliamentary reform, lower taxes, and the abolition of sinecures were once the literal definition of radical.
The idea of this piece to tar and feather mass movements as inherently bad happily and absurdly glides past the reality that basically everything he says about bad mass movements also applies to good mass movements. The fundamental problem with these movements is that in the moment it is hard to tell the useful from the destructive. Neither this discussion nor the original piece seem to offer much useful information on sorting the two cases. People instead seem to embrace these ideas to justify their feelings about “bad” social movements (including those with ambiguous qualities that they personally dislike).
- somedude895 3y agoThere are a couple of clear traits to bad mass movements: > the faithful strive to escape suspicion by adhering zealously to prescribed behavior and opinion And also the demonising of individuals or groups, rewriting of history and not having any clear goals or demands, or them being utopian as in unattainable.
- foldr 3y ago> or them being utopian as in unattainable. Universal suffrage seemed utopian and unattainable for a long time – until it happened. It's actually rather difficult to predict which political goals are or aren't obtainable without the benefit of hindsight.
- Nevermark 3y agoI think that was clearly obtainable in principle, or at least asymptotically attainable. An unattainable utopia might include anacapitalists who want to replace any kind of government or governance with an expansion of capitalism, and don't see inherent problems with that.
- foldr 3y agoPeople saw lots of 'inherent problems' with universal suffrage too. They were all silly, in retrospect, but did not seem so at to many people at the time. See e.g. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/classicreadings/chapter/bertrand-russell-on-anti-suffragist-arguments/ https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/classicreadings/chapter/bertr...
- eduction 3y agoHoffer doesn’t say bad mass movements are like that, he says all mass movements are like that, according to the article: “ Hoffer writes that “in a mass movement, the air is heavy-laden with suspicion…the faithful strive to escape suspicion by adhering zealously to prescribed behavior and opinion…” Totally specious. How is this true of the civil rights movement, or the gay rights movement , or the movement for labor rights (pensions, 8 hour workdays, weekends) in the first half of the 20th century? The whole piece is painting mass movements with a broad brush because the author doesn’t like certain specific recent ones.
- janwillemb 3y agoYou have either never been part of a "proper cult" or are at the moment part of one.
- eduction 3y agoNo one needs to have been in a cult to discuss this article, and frankly it has nothing to do with cults. Mass movements are different than cults - you are the one who said otherwise and it’s on you to prove your point (not on me to divine the relevant experience of your life).
- janwillemb 3y agoSorry that was unnecessarily ad hominem on my part.