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Regarding cults, why are the US, South Korea, and Japan so full of cults? And does Europe have a cult problem?
Europe does not in general have a cult problem, but US based cults are slowly expanding into Europe to grow and take advantage of people's general sense of a decreasing quality of life.
Europe dealt with its cults by sending them to its colonies, hoping that the elements and natives would deal with them.
That's mostly anglos. Other colonial and not colonial countries in Europe usually used good old fashioned religious wars to get rid of their heretics.
Cults solve three issues for the bourgeoisie in the USA, SK, and Japan:
- It perfectly internalize the revolutionary energy and/or channels it away into the cults organization.
- It gives a sense of community in places that have been devastated by hyper individualistic ideologies.
- It can deliver powerful anti communist propaganda and capitalist apologia disguised by the "word of god". (This is what I have seen in Latin american evangelicals that receive preachers from the USA). In other words, the "Prosperity theology"
That's why cults prey on the needy and the helpless within the working class. It is an effective way to disorganize the working class with messages such as: "pray to god so you can have prosperity" or "Poverty is a curse of god and it means that you are lacking x y or z characteristics to be a perfect follower of the cult"
It can deliver powerful anti communist propaganda and capitalist apologia disguised by the “word of god”.
This is very true. I have never seen any cult that isn't anti-communist, be it Falun Gong, Unification Church, or others.
Some churches even sponsor anti communist terrorists like the Doral Jesus Worship Center in Miami Dade.
"At the time of his arrest, Alazo’s regular association with the Doral Jesus Worship Center in Miami Dade was known, in which people with recognized conduct in favor of aggression, hostility, violence and extremism against Cuba gathered", the Cuban Foreign Ministry added in its statement.
Closest I could maybe come up with was some of the more hippie oriented ones back in the day that the CIA ended up infiltrating and flushing out. Not explicitly communist but anti-war anti-imperialist pothead leftism at best.
South Korea
In this case it was so the military dictatorship could still rule while a facade of democracy was given to south koreans.
It would be fair to call SK a dictatorship right up till 2016...and then afterwards still a dictatorship, just a known one.