{"id":51192,"date":"2020-05-26T14:56:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T14:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/?p=51192"},"modified":"2020-06-03T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T22:18:10","slug":"from-kool-aid-to-clorox-how-to-leave-the-death-cult-behind-us-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2020\/05\/from-kool-aid-to-clorox-how-to-leave-the-death-cult-behind-us-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"From Kool-Aid to Clorox \u2014 how to leave the death cult behind us for good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"04AAeJ-vRYFq3j3Lv5pXYQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1211485969\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'04AAeJ-vRYFq3j3Lv5pXYQ',sig:'y6qr2vZmIV0nMztkZshQxZ9TSVBNH2YQxU7iLtLd4Qc=',w:'594px',h:'372px',items:'1211485969',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I <a href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2018\/11\/jonestown-not-too-late-to-learn\/\">compared the president and his followers to Jim Jones<\/a> and the \u201cPeoples Temple\u201d cult two years ago I didn\u2019t expect many would go that far. In fact, I hoped events would prove me wrong. Unfortunately, the comparison has become inescapable, and other writers have made the same observation. \u201cDonald Trump is the Jim Jones of American presidents,\u201d writes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/author\/chauncey-devega\/\">Chauncey DeVega<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump&#8217;s recent recommendation that people inject themselves with disinfectant, for example, was, as many recognized, sheer madness. But behind that madness is a diabolical method. As one doctor warned, \u201cThat\u2019s how people kill themselves.\u201d Another doctor, psychotherapist John Gartner, who contributed to the bestselling book \u201cThe Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,\u201d flatly says, \u201cOur president\u2019s mental pathologies inexorably compel him to hurt and kill large numbers of people \u2014 including his own supporters.\u201d The deaths caused by his inactivity (and fantastic lies) in the face of the pandemic are not simply collateral damage from Trump\u2019s policies, Gartner claims, but \u201cthe logical outcome of his apparent mental pathologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What are we going to do about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cults need a \u201ccharismatic\u201d leader. They need followers ready to swallow fantastical beliefs and who \u2014 if it\u2019s a suicide cult \u2014 resonate with the perverse appeal of evil. At the same time, however, they also need something else if they are to become more than a quaint fringe: They need a culture in which people generally tend to lose sight of the sanctity of life. Psychopathic \u201cleaders\u201d will no doubt arise from time to time, as will some disillusioned followers, but in a healthy culture in which people can develop a robust sense of the meaning of life those seeds won\u2019t take root. They will get no traction, its adherents dangerous only to themselves (unless they take to violence). And it\u2019s here, at that cultural level, that we get some leverage to keep the phenomenon under control, and hopefully see the end of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Half a century ago, on April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King warned in his famous Riverside Church speech that, \u201cA nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.\u201d Since then, what have we seen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>death-heads sprouting on car windows, motorcycles, clothing and men\u2019s bodies,<\/li><li>the rise of horror movies \u2014 culminating in a spate of films where the actors actually play \u201cdead\u201d characters,<\/li><li>Halloween steadily degenerating from a solemn festival to honor the departed to a ghoulish celebration of the twin evils of money and death. It is now a bigger national holiday (and business) than Christmas, which is essentially a celebration of life.<\/li><li>Governors, tacitly or openly supported by the president, literally arguing that people should be glad to risk death for the economy \u2014 in one case at least arguing that death would be good for us because it would \u201cclean out\u201d the aged and infirm. No wonder some have referred to the president\u2019s \u201cNazification\u201d of the Republican Party.<\/li><li>And the president enthusiastically identifying himself with the most destructive heroes of our very destructive pop culture.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We failed to heed King\u2019s warning about \u201cspiritual death,\u201d and it went on to become all too real.<\/p>\n\n\n<section class=\"display-posts-listing\"><h6 class=\"sans-serif text-uppercase small-letter-spacing text-gray\">Previous Coverage<\/h6><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2019\/09\/climate-crisis-media-fast\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/jeremy-yap-J39X2xX_8CQ-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/jeremy-yap-J39X2xX_8CQ-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/jeremy-yap-J39X2xX_8CQ-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/jeremy-yap-J39X2xX_8CQ-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/09\/jeremy-yap-J39X2xX_8CQ-unsplash-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2019\/09\/climate-crisis-media-fast\/\">Our culture of death and what we can do about it<\/a><\/li><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yet, while the forces of death are hard at work taking advantage of the pandemic to further eviscerate our democracy, we see those acts of human courage and resilience that so often appear \u2014 much to everyone\u2019s surprise \u2014 in a crisis: neighbors checking on neighbors, bringing them food; the incredible courage of the frontline workers and essential service men and women, not to mention 22,000 mostly young people volunteering to help in vaccine testing at great risk to themselves; an Italian priest laying down his life for a younger person, and many more. We\u2019re also seeing models of resilience that can serve as seeds of a new future, like the small communities and the people engaged in baking or farming \u2014 what Gandhi called \u201cbread labor,\u201d barter economies. The village where I live in Northern California had already organized a radio network for use in the fires and other catastrophes of climate change. Now the network is extended to account for every person in the community who may need help. I bring produce from our garden to the now very busy food bank every Thursday, and many who have the skill are making masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is human nature. But it\u2019s not our current culture. I grew up with \u201cLord of the Flies,\u201d for example \u2014 a fictional, highly demoralizing story about supposedly innate human savagery. So did my children, for whom it was required reading in school. It became a best-seller and of course an equally successful film. Well, last week the Guardian reported that an event much like the frame story of the novel actually happened \u2014 only the outcome bore no resemblance to the disastrous novel. In 1965 six Australian teens, desperate to escape the boredom of school, \u201cborrowed\u201d a small boat and set out for a nearby island, only to be caught in a storm and stranded on an uninhabited island for 15 months. Realizing they were likely to be stuck for a while, the first thing they did on making land was to set rules for &#8220;time outs\u201d if it looked like a conflict was brewing. They governed themselves peacefully and democratically for the 15 months. Not the stuff of an \u201cexciting\u201d movie; but the stuff of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Human nature can be suppressed, which for some reason we are avidly doing with our popular (and now political) culture, but it can never be eliminated. Something in us will always want life over death, no matter how loud the cultural echo chamber for violence. And that hopeful element in us can be mobilized as a political force. A student leader of the successful Serbian Otpor! uprising of 2000, Sr\u018ca Popovi\u0107, explained how they won, saying: \u201cThey were on the side of death, we were on the side of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now as it happens the morbid cultural echo chamber is beginning to sound hoarse. Rutger Bregman, who wrote the book on the real lord of the flies, writes, \u201cFor centuries western culture has been permeated by the idea that humans are selfish creatures. That cynical image of humanity has been proclaimed in films and novels, history books and scientific research. But in the last 20 years, something extraordinary has happened. Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more hopeful view of mankind. This development is still so young that researchers in different fields often don\u2019t even know about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can get behind that change, and build a revolution. And we can do this by resolutely choosing life over death wherever possible. If you\u2019re teaching a biology class, don\u2019t teach your students to \u201cpith\u201d (aka kill) a frog to study its inner organs \u2014 computer modeling is just fine. Think about maybe going vegetarian. Pull back from the popular media\u2019s demoralizing message. Be careful about our language. I winced when a friend said to me recently that a local restaurant has \u201ca salmon to die for.\u201d Setting aside the fact that we might want to let the poor salmon go on living, we can resensitize ourselves to these casual comments that unconsciously reinforce the distorted priorities of which suicide cults are an extreme expression. In these small ways we can reawaken others also to the beauty of life, and that will build up to the policy changes that reflect that sensitivity: converting criminal justice to restorative justice, phasing in the many nonviolent substitutes for war, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n<section class=\"display-posts-listing\"><h6 class=\"sans-serif text-uppercase small-letter-spacing text-gray\">Previous Coverage<\/h6><li class=\"listing-item\"><a class=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2020\/02\/stop-cult-trump-satisfy-human-need-meaning\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"799\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/02\/25218962886_734d099f46_c.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/02\/25218962886_734d099f46_c.jpg 799w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/02\/25218962886_734d099f46_c-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/02\/25218962886_734d099f46_c-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/02\/25218962886_734d099f46_c-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><\/a> <a class=\"title\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2020\/02\/stop-cult-trump-satisfy-human-need-meaning\/\">To stop the cult of Trump we need to satisfy the human need for meaning<\/a><\/li><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can also study nonviolence. In fact, we must. Even as we struggle with the pandemic we must get ready for a fiercer struggle, against the agendas of those who have already begun using the pandemic as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2020\/03\/the-un-shock-doctrine-pandemic-strategic-plan\/\">shock doctrine<\/a>\u201d to carry forward the destruction of our most cherished democratic institutions. Consciously or not, they are stoking the obsession with death to support that baneful agenda. As the president recently said, the sight of healthcare workers rushing to their death is \u201ca beautiful thing.\u201d A nation approaches spiritual death when war becomes an obsession, the only metaphor for every challenge. Physical death is just that, and right now it\u2019s brought to you by Clorox, hydroxychloroquine, etc. (Gartner forgot to mention that death cult leaders compass their own death with almost equal alacrity). And political death is dictatorship, because the fundamental principle behind democracy, after all, is the sanctity of every person, every life. Our resistance will draw upon that very principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, rhetoric like \u201cwe were on the side of life, they were on the side of death\u201d is not advisable. It will only sting the opposition to further fury, deeper divisiveness. The statement we make with our words and actions can be subtler, and all the more effective. We can uplift the sanctity of life by cherishing diversity in nature and humanity. As Gandhi said, \u201cEven differences prove helpful, where there are tolerance, charity, and truth.\u201d We can play down the importance of money and materialism, show empathy even with those standing in opposition, and above all back the science and other aspects of the paradigm shift that Bregman mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A cultural mindset operates below the surface, which is why it has taken so long to recognize that our pop culture is a dominant force behind the political and associated disasters we\u2019re now facing. This does not mean, however, that we cannot be intentional about changing it. A culture\u2019s prevailing story, or mindset, is based on the individual mindsets of people, including influential people who can bring many others with them. A society\u2019s political choices are based, roughly speaking, on its individual ones. And we will not be operating in a vacuum here. \u201cThe fact that mankind persists,\u201d Gandhi pointed out, \u201cshows that the cohesive force is greater than the disruptive force.\u201d Each of us has our own sphere of influence in which we can make this critical choice of cohesiveness over disruption, life over death. Therefore choose life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more hopeful view of mankind. We can get behind that change, and build a revolution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":51199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,24,60],"tags":[35,56,61,98],"region":[65],"series":[],"article_type":[],"class_list":["post-51192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-democracy","category-militarism","tag-gandhi","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-movies","tag-war","region-north-america"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From Kool-Aid to Clorox \u2014 how to leave the death cult behind us for good - Metta Center for Nonviolence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more hopeful view of mankind. We can get behind that change, and build a revolution.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/metta\/2020\/05\/from-kool-aid-to-clorox-how-to-leave-the-death-cult-behind-us-for-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Kool-Aid to Clorox \u2014 how to leave the death cult behind us for good\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more hopeful view of mankind. 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