So, You Want to Join a Cult - Follow Up - Part V - Infallibility

Tied closely with the need for promoting division, the idea that the cult leader is infallible is an essential ingredient in cultishness. You'll probably never hear a cult leader unambiguously claim to be infallible, and often they will insist that they're not, but their action belie their words.

In the cult that I was a part of for many years, one of the attractions was that the cult leader was insistent that he would teach us how to read and interpret the Bible for ourselves and would not be subject to any man's interpretation. He preached that the Bible in fact interpreted itself, and if you just kept in mind several "keys to interpretation", everything in the Bible was crystal clear and unambiguous. This, as I later realized, was bullshit. Even if you accept the idea that there is a way to glean the Bible's meaning without any ambiguity or contradictions, the shear number of groups, all insisting on different interpretations should put that idea to bed. 

When I first became involved in this cult there were few churches who claimed to encourage their members to study the Bible, rather than merely listen to what the pastor had to say about it on Sunday. Anyone who was saying that study of the Bible would result in understanding the Bible was rare, if not virtually unique. This is no longer the case, evangelical and fundamentalist churches and their members have multiplied across the land, and they all believe that their interpretation is the right one, despite multitudes of differing interpretations, all insisting that they're right. It's not so different in the political realm. Everyone is a Constitutional scholar these days, and anyone who thinks that the Constitution is clear and not open to interpretation is engaged in wishful thinking. But I digress.

In any cult that professes to show the way by allowing self-study, you'll sooner or later run up against a disagreement with the cult leader. And the cult leader always wins the argument. Have you been studying as long as the leader? No? Then how can you even consider disagreeing with his conclusions? Do you have the spiritual connections that the leader has? No? Maybe come back when you do. Or perhaps the rebukes are a little softer. It's suggested that you should hold your objection "in abeyance", put it "on hold" until you are spiritually mature enough to understand. It doesn't take long, if you stick around, for you to simply stop questioning and accept whatever is presented to you. Interpretations and explanations by the leader that are clearly unsupported start to sound logical. You start spouting them yourself, even though you really can't explain them. You internalize what you've been told and convince yourself that it all makes sense. You eventually reach the point where you can barely tolerate differing opinions, because in your mind, what you believe is so self-evidently true, that anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. 

I'm sure you can see how this applies to politics. Social media is full of people who are against Critical Race Theory but have no idea what it is. They just "know" it's bad. They mindlessly repeat everything that their leaders say, but have convinced themselves that they have reasoned it through for themselves. They're convinced that there's evidence for massive election fraud, yet only believe that there was election fraud because somebody, without evidence, told them that there was election fraud. Not all cults are religious cults. 

In order for a cult to maintain control whatever the leader says has to be treated as Truth (with a capital "T"). The core beliefs have to be treated as beyond question and dissenting views as ridiculous or even dangerous.