Analysis Of The Cult You Re In By Kalle Lasn

In the essay, The Cult You’re In, Kalle Lasn not only used rhetoric devices and imagery to allow readers to come to a better understanding of who ‘you’ are and the role you play through the reality of the detrimental reality of life. Kalle used these devices to almost scare readers into a reality check insinuating that not everything is perfect or how we image them to be. Reality is described as only being a figment of one’s mind, by being a meager front. From birth to teenage year’s life was almost picture perfect being a “This is your life moment.” You would be living the life of a diligent and optimistic child, but you quickly realize like Lasn said, “Those big dreams of youth didn’t quite plan out.”

Many people feel that cults are nothing more than a nontraditional religion, because of beliefs, organization, and interest. Cults are much more than just little religions. They are a dangerous, and in the United States there is little we can do about it.

The church of Scientology has been the subject of controversy since its inception. Its methods and beliefs have attracted the attention of scholars from around the world. The church has been under government investigation and has endured a countless amount of lawsuits (Reitman 14). It is also a hot topic by the media with several endorsements by some of the most recognized Hollywood celebrities. However, the main topic of debate regarding the Church of Scientology is its status as a religion. Some members claim that the church has helped them overcome their struggles and that they are happier people, while others condemn it as a dangerous cult (Sweeney). The church of Scientology is a religious group whose purpose is to retain their

Everyone is in a consumer’s hypnosis, even if you think you are not. When you go to a store and pick one brand over the other, you are now under their spell. The spell/ hypnosis is how companies get you to buy there things over other companies and keep you hooked. Either through commercials or offering something that you think will make your life better by what they tell you. For example, you go to the store and you need to buy water, once you get to the lane and look, there is 10 different types of water you can buy. You go pick one either because the picture is better or you seen the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult

Additionally, Tammy represents another portion of the class division, the leader of a cult, both of religion and personality, standing over her followers and giving them orders to lay down their lives while never sacrificing her own. Similar to the celebrities that influence their audience, the corrupt religious leaders that swindle their patrons, or the politicians that send young adults to war but never leave the safety of their own homes, Tammy is a symbol of the corrupt, the power-hungry, and the egomaniacs.

Counter-culture progressed in the early 20th century and represented the lifestyle of the young, who opposed dominant values and behaviors in their society. The young would create protest movements to oppose the culture of the modern American society. Throughout Professor Corey’s lectures I learned various types of counter cultural dating back to the era of the moderns, the beats, SDS, Port Huron statement, and from the novel “What Maggie Knew”. Each of these counter-cultural subjects was tempered by an opposing value that triggered to start a counter culture era of new dominance, in the way they see the world. The Moderns era consist of intellectuals and youths in the 1920s.

Cults are the groups that exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause. All the group members have a same goal or mission, and the group thinking helps the group members to stick on the same goal. For the Heaven Gate, their goal is to enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom level above human. The documentary of “Heaven Gate Cult” perfectly shows the four ways for the cult to promote their group thinking.

Ethan Horton has been courting his four wolverine mates, Lash, Charm, Slug and Rage for months. His father, Cody, is not a fan of Ethan's suitors, who were previously guards for a cult known as the Will and the Word, and treated Ethan badly. The cult is now gone, but Cody is still uneasy about his son being mated to the wolverines. Ethan was buried alive with his lovers for months beneath the town of Sage, and knows his mates suffered as much as he did. He also knows that their families are monstrous creatures who only know about hurting people and demeaning them, especially their own sons. They were the ones who let the cult dump the wolverines and Ethan into a deep hole in the ground, and still pose a threat to Ethan's happiness.

No one has ever been able to articulate just what makes a cult, and what makes a religion different. Yet most people, when listing mainstream religions, name Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, among others. These religions have existed for thousands of years and have millions of followers; they have thus earned a degree of respect even from outsiders. However, Mormonism—the tradition of the Latter Day Saints movement—is considered strange, and by some, a cult. In the modern age, many consider its very premise a hoax. Mark Twain criticized the Mormon holy scripture, calling it “chloroform in print” (Turner 229), and Jacob Weisberg (editor of the Washington Post) called Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, “an obvious con man” (Ostling xv). Yet

     For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.

The Conquest of Cool examines the common perception of the Sixties counterculture. It questions the idea that the revolution and rebellion of the subculture of the 1960s in America against the consumer driven culture of the 1950s were actually a consumer driven rebellion in and of itself. The book 's primary message is to describe how Advertisers and other big business in corporate America such as soda pop bottlers and clothing companies welcomed the counterculture and perhaps were responsible for creating it. Consumer driven industry realized that instant gratification would make this new generation better consumers than their frugal post world war 2 parents. The book hints that the art and creative self-expression of the counterculture in 1960s America was reflected in, and driven by the advertising of the time, suggesting that life imitates art or that advertising imitates the culture. However, the author also suggests that advertisers anticipated the revolution and in part precipitated the counterculture, creating the culture that it marketed freedom to. We see that the 1950s advertising was characterized by an entity known as, "Organization Man.” A fabricated mold that would fit easily in the capitalist machine. During the 1950s ad agencies and advertising companies marketed a lifestyle to fit this most common mold. They tailor-made advertisements to the desires of the subculture as well as corporations. Corporations wanted a safe scientific advertising, yet the

A cult is defined as a social group or a social movement under one charismatic leader. It maintains a belief system, which includes a transformation of a group member. Members of the group have a high level of commitment to the leader, members, and beliefs (Lalich). An additional definition to consider is from the American Journal of Psychotherapy:

destructive cult is a rigidly structured absolutist group usually under an authoritarian, charismatic leader which isolates itself from established societal

The song starts with an introduction from a male voice, speaking as though he were not from earth. The sound of the electric guitar explodes into your ears, introducing the piece as a rock song. This was quickly followed by the sound of heavy, but simple beat that would continue throughout the song. The singer grabs your attention with a demand that the listener look into his eyes. The verses that follow are simple and sung clearly, I can easily imagine a large crowd singing along to it as though it were their anthem. The entire song has a rhythmic energy running through it, making it the kind of song a person would want to dance to. The guitar solo is a break from the steady beat that permeates the song, with its high pitched electronic sound. As the song continues, the beat becomes faster, the guitar more frenzied and the singer repeating the statement, “I am the cult of personality”, till a different male voice closes the song.

Within its many forms, subsets, and purposes, Culture has long been an object of investigation, dissection, and interpretation across various facets in business, literature, and everyday lives. It encompasses the most direct and contemporary aspects of our lives via entertainment, sports, news, music, politics, technology, fashion and more. As many of us have ventured into these outlets and taken interest (and obsession) with things within them, we are able to take what is being ‘sold’ to us and form our own meanings and also, create new ones. In the process of building upon our own interpretations and values based on these things we so strongly associate with, many of us have become part of a subset(s) within these