In this conversational excerpt, two speakers discuss the prevalence of cult-like thinking in everyday opinions, expressing frustration that many people lack the ability or willingness to change their minds. They recommend cult-themed media, highlighting Ari Aster's film 'Midsommar' as an illustration of how personal relationships can draw individuals into cults. The dialogue then shifts to literature, mentioning Gérald Merleau's works, especially 'Rape of the Mind,' which examines how ordinary people participated in Holocaust atrocities and how prisoners sought approval from guards, underscoring the ordinary appearance of perpetrators. The speakers reflect on broader human psychology, noting a pervasive insecurity that drives a paradoxical need for approval while simultaneously pushing others away, likening this behavior to a porcupine. Throughout, the tone remains conversational and reflective, with a critical stance toward unexamined groupthink and an enthusiastic curiosity about media that explores cult phenomena.
Chapters
one thing here in LA too is people are very affected and like very culty in their opinions.
Yes.
And I always, I'm always like, I'll talk politics or religion because you can change my mind. Like, I'm not—
I want people to change my mind. If someone changes my mind, I go, that was a great conversation.
Unfortunately, people usually can't change my mind because they don't know what they're talking about.
That's true. Yes.
They're just in the cult.
Try. Yes. I saw the cult section.
Yeah. Oh yeah, I'm fascinated. Oh yeah. With that and human behavior.
Yeah.
But yeah, most of the time you realize very quickly they're just in the cult.
Oh, totally.
And they don't really have an opinion.
Yeah.
They haven't thought through it.
Totally. I don't think people sometimes realize it until afterwards that they're in it or ever do. It's an extreme experience to come out of that or into it, which is kind of what we were talking about with small towns of realizing that or not.
Are there any good horror movies about cults?
Mid Samar is a great movie.
Mid Tomorrow?
Mid Samar.
Mid Samar?
Yeah, it was a movie that came out recently, Ari Aster movie. It's basically what if you were to go through a relationship breakup, but you were brought into a cult and how do you escape the cult while wanting your partner to be there for you and they're not? Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah. Are there any good cult books or movies that you'd recommend?
So I pulled a couple books to see kind of what you thought. So you, read any of the Gérald Merleau, Delusions and Mass Delusions or Rape of the Mind?
No, but that is an enticing title. Yeah. Stop in your tracks and go, what is this book?
So Rape of the Mind. So his writing comes out of the Holocaust and trying to understand how people can do that to each other or being different.
Yeah.
The other thing that he kind of said is like, after it was over and they put some of the people that had committed the worst crimes that ran the concentration camps on trial, and they come out and they're like 5'2", 100 pounds and nerdy.
Yes.
And they're not like these huge menacing monsters that you think.
Yeah.
Like they're just people that would be working behind a desk. Killed hundreds of thousands of people in a sense, and they don't look like what you think they should look like. So that's part of his fascination, too. But yeah, even he talks about in Rape of the Mind how some of the prisoners would turn on their own people for the admiration of the guards.
Yeah.
And just that, you know, that need for approval and acceptance.
Yeah.
That we have.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like if every— most of what I deal with in my job and with other people, it's people have this insecurity. And if we could get rid of that for everybody, everyone would be a lot better off. But that's obviously— we're still having all these issues, so no one's figured that out yet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the contradiction too, that A lot of people have self-esteem that doesn't allow them to accept the thing that they want. So they want approval and acceptance, but they're walking around like porcupines. Totally pushing everybody away.
Yeah.
And that contradiction in human behavior is fascinating, too.
Yeah. It's usually the people who are very secure are not the ones who are doing that all the time, but it's people who are insecure have been doing that a lot. Yeah.
