the end of the world cult

[8ball]

I gather, like most cults of this kind, the members gave him all their worldly goods on joining.

I think it was mentioned quite early on.

 

[camouflage]

Isn't the idea that the 'leader' gives the 'followers' enough latitude so that they think they're in control, when really they're not?

I mean, if he had called it like it is, saying 'hey you all worship me and then strip naked and let me hold you', no one is going to go along with it. But then you tell them you're the son of god, you grow a beard and mimic the appearance of an already-created symbol and then the rest is history...

Which is why you can't call him delusional, but sociopathic. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew the world wasn't going to end, when that became obvious he changed his story, saying he was going to have a makeover, ffs.

I think you're all giving the guy way too much credit. It takes a crowd to make a cult, not just one guy. Thinking it's all on him is just the other side of what his followers are doing, seeing the man as some kind of superpowerful being capable of bending the minds of others to his own indominatable godlike will.

They're all in the cult, they all agree to partake in it, the people that were born into it don't know any other world to be a part of, the people that joined it from an outside world in which they could find no other meaning other than "DVDs, paying bills and feeding their own sick desires" joined it because it gives them something they couldn't find anywhere else. An intimate sense of community, tribe, a sense of being special, sacred, chosen, best friends with the Messiah, etc etc. Obviously it has a destructive and isolating effect to their lives but heroin users and alcaholics love their poison of choice too, the inprisonment probably offers them some kind of sense of security for one thing.

It's already been mentioned by someone in the thread that the interviewer was abit of a prick as well. That scene where he interviews the cult-leader and the cult leader challenges him to say what exactly is so good about the "real world" and "real life" that we can judge them (the "DVDs and sick desires" bit), but the interviewer doesn't come up with anything very clever, as the silence dragged on he doesn't say anything to challenge the cult leader or put him on the spot or make him look lost for words or foolish in front of his followers, and it wasn't like the old bastard didn't give him time to come back with something either.

The interviewer did the followers no favours in that scene because after that you could see how pleased they all were with themselves, how much they felt they had 'won' the encounter, that their guy was on form and truly the son of god or whatever. Instead the interviewer contents himself with a somewhat peevy voice-over obviously put together in the editing room long after the bus-ride home, muttering some rubbish about how the cultleader is "not used to being challenged" and "attempting to stare me down".

I was reminded of the same old tired argument put up by islamic fanatics about "what has contemporary 'meaningless' Western culture got to offer the world except porn and video games?" Well, if you're the kind of person that only sees porn and video games and the rest of capitalist/consummerist culture as the only alternative to some arrogant diety-centered regime that tells you what to think and feel in this great big immensitude of experience that we call life then more's the pity for you. But the interviewer in this documentary was certainly no Louie Theroux.

The other part of the film that I found very sad was when the film crew returned to the cults compound and the son of the cult-leader opened the gate for them, shoulders slumped, staring at the ground like a zombie, and the interviewer said "Hello -" and the guys head shoots up, smile in place, as if awakened from the dark internal world that he has (unfortunately in my opinion) chosen to lose himself in, replies "Hello!"

He looked so gaunt and sad, totally lost. But what are you gonna do, it's his only world. Sad but, it's the choice he made for himself. Likewise the rest of them. 'Michael' has no super powers, they're like a bunch of fantasists that don't want to grow up, choosing to hide away from the world out in the desert. I could imagine how the boy would experience high-school for instance, the bullying alone would be enough to make him want to spend the rest of his life in Strong City, and turn his back on the 'hellish' world elswhere forever, and never leave, and go through one merry apocalyspe after another.

 

[Part 2]

Just noticed this is on catch up TV for those that have it.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Hey, we're still here, or are we? I wonder what will become of this cult now? I hope the members gather round and rip the man's bollocks off and feed them to him. He'll probably just set yet another date though, god is quite the joker isn't he?