Cult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS7mBbXxJYA

[I grew up in a cult. It was heaven -- and hell. | Lilia Tarawa | TEDxChristchurch]

Lilia Tarawa was brought up in the Gloriavale Christian Community on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, where she was constantly surrounded by everyone she loved. But over time, she began to see the dark side of her community, and ultimately realised that she had to get out. In this raw and emotional talk, Lilia shares the reality of life in a cult, and her heart-wrenching journey to break free.

Lilia Tarawa is a New Zealand writer, speaker, holistic health consultant and business coach. She is a member of the Māori Ngāi Tahu tribe. Lilia was born into New Zealand's infamous religious cult, Gloriavale, and fled with her eleven family members at eighteen years of age. Her extraordinary life experience compelled her to pursue a career promoting human rights, welfare and empowerment. (동영상 설명)

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/17/an-apocalyptic-cult-900-dead-remembering-the-jonestown-massacre-40-years-on

[An apocalyptic cult, 900 dead: remembering the Jonestown massacre, 40 years on]

Although Jones’s followers would later be stereotyped as sinister, brainwashed idiots, the journalist Tim Reiterman argues in his seminal book on the subject that many were “decent, hardworking, socially conscious people, some highly educated”, who “wanted to help their fellow man and serve God, not embrace a self-proclaimed deity on earth”. The Peoples Temple advocated socialism and communitarian living and was racially integrated to an exceptional standard rarely matched since 

He drifted away from traditional Christian teachings, describing himself in messianic terms and claiming he was the reincarnation of figures like Christ and Buddha. He also claimed that his goal all along was communism, and, in a twist on the famous dictum that religion is the “opiate of the masses”, that religion was merely his way of making Marxism more palatable. 

Followers were expected to devote themselves completely to the church’s utopian project: they turned over their personal wealth, worked long hours of unpaid labor for the church and often broke contact with their families. They were expected to raise their children within the commune.

Jones, who had long believed the US was in danger of imminent nuclear holocaust, had been searching for a place where his church would be “safe” during an apocalyptic event.

Reiterman has argued that it is impossible to separate Jonestown from its political and social context. The “Peoples Temple was – as many communes, cults, churches and social movements are – an alternative to the established social order, a nation unto itself”, he wrote in Raven. “The Temple I knew was not populated by masochists and half-wits, so it followed that the members who gave years of labor, life savings, homes, children and, in some cases, their own lives had been getting something in return.”

He “recoiled”, Reiterman added, “when outsiders took the attitude that they or their children would never be crazy or vulnerable enough to join such an organization. Such complacency is self-delusion.”

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'인지부조화'.

원인을 합리화하여 행동에 일치시키는 방식

미국의 심리학자인 레온 페스팅거(Leon Festinger)는 1950년대 초에 참으로도 이상한 신문기사를 보게 됩니다. 당시 미국의 어느 마을에서 한 사이비 종교 교주가 주장하기를, 자신이 신으로부터 계시를 받았는데 조만간 큰 홍수가 닥칠 것이며 오로지 자신을 믿고 따르는 신도들만 비행접시로 구출될 것이라고 했답니다. 이를 믿은 사람들은 전 재산을 이 교주에게 맡기고 철야 기도에 들어갔습니다...“당신들의 믿음에 힘입어 세계는 멸망의 문턱에서 구원을 받았다.” 놀랍게도 이 말을 들은 신도들은 기뻐하며 축제를 벌였고, 이후로도 교주를 신실하게 믿었답니다.

대부분의 사람은 적어도 자신이 멍청하지 않다고 생각하기 때문에, 이러한 전제와 모순되지 않으려면 두 번째와 같이 생각할 수밖에 없는 것입니다. 이들에 비해 수고비를 넉넉히 받은 그룹은 이런 압박에서 자유롭게 자신들이 참여한 실험을 평가할 수 있었던 것입니다.

이렇듯 어떤 상황에 부딪혔는데 그로부터 이끌어낼 수 있는 합리적인 결론이 기존에 철석같이 믿고 있던 생각과 정면으로 모순될 때, 사람들은 합리적인 결론보다는 부조리하지만 자신의 기존 생각에 부합하는 생각을 선택합니다. 이것이 바로 ‘인지 부조화의 원리(Cognitive dissonance)’입니다. 어리석은 선택을 하고 난 후에는 어떻게든 그 선택이 불가피한 것이었다고 믿으려 애쓰며, 명백한 판단 착오였어도 끝까지 자신이 옳았다고 우기기도 합니다.

[네이버 지식백과] 인지 부조화 원리 [Cognitive Dissonance] - 오류를 바로잡기보다는 생각을 바꿔버린다 (사람을 움직이는 100가지 심리법칙, 2011. 10. 20., 정성훈)

 

• 행동보다 약한 믿음, 신념.
• 신념은 어디에서 왔는가. 무엇을 확신할 수 있는가.
• 행동, 경험이 주는 피드백. 합리화. 약간 내로남불
• 어떤 신념보다도 선행되는 생명 존엄성의 신념 (혹은 본능)
• 내가 멍청한 걸 알자...
• 존스 기사 보니까 궁예 생각난다.