As a student of the Collective Unconscious for more than a decade, cults are of great interest to me.
 
They are laboratories of archetypal phenomena, where groups of people gratefully project their sovereignty onto a leader, principle or idea, until one day the whole thing blows up.
 
The most prominent cults active in the West these last few years have been the Cult of Wokeism and the Cult of Qanon.
 
Both of these cults are decentralized and without explicit leadership, although Trump certainly inspired Qanon.
 
Though just over a year ago, something of great interest happened – the mainstream started to mutate into a cult.
 
In my estimation, this surprising development was caused by the level of uncertainty and fear associated with the pandemic, and the concomitant (and very understandable) longing people had to receive protection and solutions from people in authority.
 
This tendency has been escalating, and large parts of the mainstream now tick all the boxes of religious cults.
 
As defined on learnreligions.com, these boxes are:
  1. The Leader is infallible
  2. Deceptive Recruitment Tactics
  3. Exclusivity in Faith
  4. Intimidation, fear and isolation
  5. Illegal Activities
  6. Religious Dogma
Before we explore them in turn, let’s note that 
  • The pandemic caused this mutation of the mainstream, and the pandemic has thus come to define the tenets of the cult.
  • It is technically possible to belong to the mainstream without belonging to a cult. So I’m not making the argument that ALL of the mainstream has become a cult)

Okay, let’s review the six hallmarks of a cult and how it applies to the mainstream.

1. The Leader is infallible

After the pandemic emerged, growing numbers of people around the world started to develop a whole new relationship to their leaders, nationally and institutionally. An unprecedented and unquestioned trust in the good intentions of leaders spread, with some being downright revered.
 
Thanks to this veneration of our leaders, lockdowns, centralization of power and constitutional violations have become viewed as being “in our best interest”, with leaders receiving absurd levels of of idealization and sexual projections.
 
Case in point: The Norwegian government is recently responsible for several constitutional violations, one of which is designed to centralize power and reduce accountability and transparency. 1000 citizens have sued the government for human rights violations connected to the pandemic. The cult of the mainstream ignores or forgives such events, celebrating our leaders for their “difficult choices”.

2. Deceptive Recruitment Tactics

Over this past year, the mainstream media has employed tactics of psychological manipulation to maximize fear in the population, completely ignoring huge counter-narrative events in the world. This is verified through brave exposes, whistleblowers and independent journalists.
 
Case in point: In a recent expose of CNN, CNN director Charlie Chester confesses that he sees the network as dealing in propaganda, that they routinely use psychological manipulation to maximize fear in viewers, and intentionally manipulate narratives towards their desired agenda. He does so while looking visibly bothered, outright questioning if CNN are actually the “good guys”.

3. Exclusivity in Faith

There are tenets of belief that have started to form in the mainstream. People are required to have certain views on the efficacy of lockdowns, masks, jabs etc, in ways indistinguishable from fundamentalist religion. Failure will lead to “othering” of a person as fringe and dangerous.
 
If e.g. someone is hesitant to have a vaccine, in the eyes of the cult, they’re two degrees away from being named a dangerous, alt-right extremist.
 
Case in point: Lockdowns are widely seen to be of vital importance, although they have been widely discouraged by reputable experts, including the WHO, who have urged leaders to stop using them as a primary means of combating Covid-19. While studies exist that suggest lockdowns are effective, so does studies suggesting they aren’t. In the USA, the states with the most severe restrictions had some of the highest infection rates, with the states without lockdown doing quite well, with little damage to the economy. While these waters are murky, this does appear true. Yet to be part of the cult of the mainstream, you are required to support lockdowns anyway, lest you’d be considered selfish and dangerous.

4. Intimidation, fear and isolation

Lockdowns are by definition isolation, and fear is being produced by the media and by constantly changing laws (that I can confirm from personal experience not even the authorities themselves understand).
 
The internet has been flooded by videos of people’s homes being stormed for posting “wrong-think” on social media, indicating a trend of police increasingly harassing people who fail to “fall in line”. Failing to comply is to be a danger to society.
 
Case in point: As per today, when Norwegian travellers arrive home, they go through hours of demeaning treatment by security personnel, treated – as per frequent testimony (I have not experienced it) – like dogs for hours on end. Then they are forced to pay for 10 days in a quarantine hotel, shuttled there in overfilled buses (which honour none of the government regulations). WHILE several experts in law claim the police has no authority to do this (people who fail to comply have consistently not faced consequences, as the police threats have no support in Norwegian Law)

5. Illegal Activities

Only in the last couple of weeks, Norwegian legal experts state that the Norwegian government has violated our constitution on two separate occasions. Similar reports are emerging from other countries around the world. The Cult of the Mainstream requires its members, if they even know about this, to accept it as “necessary”, and great and daring leadership in difficult times.
 
Case in point: As per the time of writing, Norway has introduced a corona passport with temporary legislation so poorly defined that constitutional experts are clear it breaks our constitution, possibly ensuring it will never be removed. 

6. Religious Dogma

As I was writing this, I initially thought I’d give the Cult of the Mainstream a pass on this one, until I realize that the Cult of the Mainstream worships Scientism. Scientism is a distortion of science that doesn’t require scientific method and peer reviewed research, but that settles for claims that sound convincing and that are delivered by people that are considered authoritative.
 
Case in point: In February of 2020, Peter Daszak coordinated a statement by a group of virologists in the Lancet stating that the lab leak theory was “a conspiracy theory”. This narrative became orthodoxy in the media, and supporting the lab leak theory came to have consequences (potentially severe). We now know the group had no science, only titles, to back up their claims. Members of the group now openly admit that if they knew then what we know now, they wouldn’t have signed the statement. Peter Daszak has been revealed to have been involved in gain of function research at the laboratory in question. (Nicholas Wade on this story)
 
I invite a breath here if this has activated you.
 
(Note: This is as close to objective reality as I’ve been able to make it, and each statement can be backed up.)
 
Okay, let’s move on to solutions.
 
How do you leave the cult?
 
First of all, you need to recognize you’re in one (that should now be easy for you)
 
Then, when you have the painful realization that you have been manipulated into a cult and surrendered your sovereignty in the process, you need to decide if you are willing and able to pay the price of leaving.
 
What is that price?
 
Well, as in any cult, they CAN be severe: Loss of friends, jobs, financial sovereignty and even family bonds may be involved.
 
And when you choose to leave, and likely realize that the consequences aren’t quite as severe as you feared, you may have to rebuild parts of your life from scratch.
 
I also believe that there will be a healing and grieving process involved.
 
You may have to grieve the loss of a life that, all things said and done, was actually yours.
 
You may have to grieve the loss of people you loved.
 
And you may have to learn to trust people again, not least of all yourself (for how on earth were you manipulated into a cult, right?)
Finally, and this is important, you will need to choose which of the cult’s ideas to leave behind, and which ones to take forwards with you.
 
For the fact is that the cult of the mainstream, while misguided, may have ideas that hold value for you and your life.
 
(As with all cults, there is a good intention in there *somewhere*.)
 
Instead of throwing everything out, consider that certain ideas, ideals and behaviours actually make sense to keep (such as certain safety precautions for limiting C-19 spread). I propose to take them with you, as useful supports in a life of true sovereignty (which is very hard to build).
 
If you should need help in leaving the cult, please don’t hesitate to ask us – as we understand this territory and its dangers. (fear of social punishment, loss of friends etc)
 
And if you should feel a desire to attack us for this blog post, then know we’re not interested in your outrage.
 
Furthermore, consider the possibility that any outrage you feel at this post reveals to you that you are indeed a member of a cult.
 
Such revelations are by design, and were they to arrive, you may want to REALLY contemplate them over the next few days.
 
Leave the Cult.