No one wants to admit that they could have been conned, lied to or tricked into entering into a cult or an abusive relationship. They are insulted at the very idea. It is understandable. We like to think of ourselves as rational creatures who are in control of our minds and do not allow ourselves to be led astray by others. Unfortunately, even the most intelligent of us can end up in a cult. All it takes is the use of certain social dynamics, to which we are all vulnerable, to pull us in.
Think back to high school and the high school cliques you had to contend with. I certainly can. I do not remember them with any especial fondness, being someone who experienced, like most people my age, bullying in school. Certainly my experience with the IMT was like entering into a bizarre high school clique, albeit one in which everyone had the same political opinions. In order to be part of the group, you must share the ideals of the group, talk like the other group members, think like them, behave like them and never do anything to stick out from the herd. I couldn’t have imagined doing this before. Yet I did end up conforming and enduring the rule of this tyrannical sect for two and a half miserable years. I was not always good at doing this, though.
I remember how cliquey my branch at university was, and how little the other members seemed to accept me because of my ‘un-Marxist’ views. I was looked at with suspicion and even jealousy. I never really fit in, and I could tell after a few months that I was never really going to. I gave up and tried to simply remain on professional terms with them, but it was not a happy experience. Perhaps the most horrific experience of all was when a member of the branch faked friendship with me and encouraged me to confess my mental health struggles to him, only to them use it against me politically, and even screenshot things I had said to him on Facebook Messenger as part of his campaign of character assassination. I was so horrified and disgusted I considered quitting the organisation. For months afterwards, I felt suicidal. I took a break of about a year from the branch and from political activity in order to recover, as part of an agreed leave of absence. (It was also a polite way for my cliquey ‘comrades’ to kick me out for a year and not have to deal with me.) It was the darkest moment of my entire life. During this difficult period, not a single member of this loathsome ‘branch’ bothered to reach out to me or to enquire about my well-being. I may as well not have existed. Some ‘friends’.
I did not lose faith in the organisation, even then. Hemmed in by ‘bounded choice’, I convinced myself that the IMT was still the only means of liberating the human race, and that the problem was simply with these branch members, whose immaturity and cruelty had driven me to distraction. Only now do I see how their behaviour was linked to the very nature of the organisation. The fanaticism, the zealotry, the hostility to the outside world – all of this conditioned their suspicion towards newcomers and fresh recruits. The fact that I seemed independent-minded, was more well-read in Marxist theory than even they were, and was confident enough to give dissenting opinions, did not endear me to them.
I was an intelligent, well-read, confident and determined young man. How could I have ended up in a cult? How could I have ended up being abused and exploited by these people? Why didn’t I just leave after my first horrific experience with this group? In similar situations in the past, I had simply extricated myself from the offending clique and regained my sovereignty and independence. Why did I not do the same this time? Because I was a member of something far worse than just a high school clique. I was in a cult, which used methods of manipulation far more sophisticated than even what you might have experienced in a school setting. For all that, the techniques are broadly similar. Conformity and groupthink is an inherent part of human nature. The very people who self-righteously claim to want a better world and to achieve positive change for the human race are often the worst bullies, oppressors and mass murderers. I can think of few things that more convincingly vindicate Hobbes’ bleak portrait of the human race than my experience in the IMT.
If I could end up in a cult, anyone can. We are all vulnerable to timeless laws of human psychology that ensnare us in exploitative organisations and relationships. Everyone has had a bad partner or friend or colleague or relative that we could not extricate ourselves from before they had caused a lot of damage and bad feeling. I was manipulated into believing that my ‘bourgeois’ self was responsible for everything bad that had happened to me, and that I had to retrain myself to be a good Marxist. I gave in to peer pressure and did everything possible to remain in the good graces of the group. It was all to no avail in the end. At some point, you reach the end of the line, and you either break free or you are totally lost. I am so happy to have broken free.