|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
ICSA does NOT
maintain a list of "bad" groups or "cults." We nonjudgmentally list groups on which
we have information. Groups listed,
described, or referred to on ICSA's Web sites may be mainstream or
nonmainstream, controversial or noncontroversial, religious or
nonreligious, cult or not cult, harmful or benign. We encourage
inquirers to consider a variety of opinions, negative and positive,
so that inquirers can make independent and informed judgments
pertinent to their particular concerns. Views expressed on
our Web sites are those of the document's author(s) and are not
necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its
directors, staff, or advisors. See: Definitional
Issues Collection; Understanding Groups Collection
Views expressed on
our Web sites are those of the document's author(s) and are not
necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its
directors, staff, or advisors
|
|
|
|
We suggest that you print this browser page
for future reference.
The Marine recruit clearly knows what the
organization is that he or she is joining.... There are no secret stages such as people
come upon in cults. Cult recruits often attend a cult activity, are lured into
"staying for a while," and soon find that they have joined the cult for life, or
as one group requires, members sign up for a "billion year
contract...."
The Marine recruit retains freedom of
religion, politics, friends, family association, selection of spouse, and information
access to television, radio, reading material, telephone, and mail.
The Marine serves a term of enlistment and
departs freely. The Marine can reenlist if he or she desires but is not forced to remain.
Medical and dental care are available,
encouraged, and permitted in the Marines. This is not true in the many cults that
discourage and sometimes forbid medical care.
Training and education received in the
Marines are usable later in life. Cults
do not necessarily train a person in anything that has any value in the greater society.
In the USMC, public records are kept and are
available. Cult records, if they exist, are confidential, hidden from members, and not
shared.
USMC Inspector General procedures protect
each Marine. Nothing protects cult members.
A military legal system is provided within
the USMC; a Marine can also utilize off-base legal and law enforcement agencies and other
representatives if needed. In cults, there is only the closed, internal system of justice,
and no appeal, no recourse to outside support.
Families of military personnel talk and deal
directly with schools. Children may attend public or private schools. In cults, children,
child rearing, and education are often controlled by the whims and idiosyncracies of the
cult leader.
The USMC is not a sovereign entity above the
laws of the land. Cults consider themselves above the law, with their own brand of
morality and justice, accountable to no one, not even their members.
A Marine gets to keep her or his pay,
property owned and acquired, presents from relatives, inheritances, and so on. In many
cults, members are expected to turn over to the cult all monies and worldly possessions.
Rational behavior is valued in the USMC.
Cults stultify members' critical thinking
abilities and capacity for rational, independent thinking; normal thought processes are
stifled and broken.
In the USMC, suggestions and criticism can
be made to leadership and upper echelons through advocated, proper channels. There are no
suggestion boxes in cults. The cult is always right, and the members (and outsiders) are
always wrong.
Marines cannot be used for medical and
psychological experiments without their informed consent. Cults essentially perform
psychological experiments on their members through implementing thought-reform
processes without members' knowledge or consent.
Reading, education, and knowledge are
encouraged and provided through such agencies as Armed Services Radio and Stars and
Stripes, and through books, post libraries, and so on. If cults do any education,
it is only in their own teachings. Members come to know less and less about the outside
world; contact with or information about life outside the cult is sometimes openly frowned
upon, if not forbidden.
In the USMC, physical fitness is encouraged
for all. Cults rarely encourage fitness or good health, except perhaps for members who
serve as security guards or thugs.
Adequate and properly balanced nourishment
is provided and advocated in the USMC. Many cults encourage or require unhealthy and
bizarre diets. Typically, because of intense work schedules, lack of funds, and other cult
demands, members are not able to maintain healthy eating habits.
Authorized review by outsiders, such as the
U.S. Congress, is made of the practices of the USMC. Cults are accountable to no one and
are rarely investigated, unless some gross criminal activity arouses the attention of the
authorities or the public.
In the USMC, the methods of instruction are
military training and education, even indoctrination into the traditions of the USMC, but
brainwashing, or thought reform, is not used. Cults influence members by means of a
coordinated program of psychological and social influence
techniques, or brainwashing.
--adapted from Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in
Our Everyday Lives, Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich,
Jossey-Bass, 1995. Reprinted with authors' permission.
|
|
_
________________________________________________________ ^ | |
