Do You Claim the Power?
June 8th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: Do You Claim the Power? :: Do You Claim the Power? :: Do You Claim the Power? :: Do You Claim the Power?
GEVANS613 at aol.com wrote:
>Joe writes:
>>I’m not sure that I am ready to attribute the behavior noted above to
>>a ‘cult’ and I’m in no position to make general claims applicable all
>>cults.
>*Cult* - /used in this (limited popular) context only/, “cult” refers to
>the organisation that develops around an abusive guru,* and which
>enforces the abuser’s authority, usually by means of an inner circle of
>lieutenants or close disciples who have taken on the abusive guru’s
>dysfunctional sadomasochistic attitudes, thus keeping the devotees
>submissive and manipulatable. Every cult (used in this context) and cult
>leader denies that they are really “cults”, and instead shadow projects
>their own dysfunctionalism onto their critics.
>http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/glossary.html
>* According to his teenage student girlfriend he *was a consumate
>liar.* (Hannah Arendt)
I’m familiar with this usage of ‘cult’; and, you might have a case that
the Heidegger was a cult leader during his own lifetime; but,
personality cults like this fall apart when the guru dies (or gets into
legal trouble).
the question for me is whether the Heideggerians now alive have formed
their own cult(s). if so, who’s the head honcho now; and, where is their
headquarters?
in a sense, trying to classify contemporary Heideggerianism as a cult
phenomenon let’s Heidegger off the hook. a cult is a social activity.
some misguided guru with an inner circle decides upon a secret
handshake, a series of initiation rituals and so on. if the Heideggerian
Anomaly, HA, that I’ve recently posted about were a cult phenomenon;
then, someone might excuse Heidegger’s writings by saying the HA was a
rule passed by the cult leader.
it would be much more sinister a problem if there was no cult and there
was still a correlation between people who adopted Heideggerian beliefs
and people who displayed the HA.
of course, correlation does not prove causality. even if we found such a
correlation we wouldn’t know whether the writings induced the HA or
whether people with a pre-existing tendency of some sort were attracted
to the writings.
Joe
–
Philosophy is, after all, done ultimately in the first person for the
first person. — H-N Castaneda
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http://what-am-i.net
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