Don’t kid yourself. The cult doesn’t serve you. You serve the cult.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

David Koresh was the leader of the Branch Davidian cult, whose followers blindly approved of every noxious thing he did, though he cared nothing for them.

The same was true of Charles Manson, leader of the “Manson Family” cult, and Jim Jones, leader of the “People’s Temple.” Though they did not care what happened to their followers, those poor people defended every ridiculous thing the cult leader did.

That is the way with cults. The leader (or leaders) can do no wrong in the eyes of the followers. Anyone who points out simple facts that demonstrate the selfishness, incompetence, criminality, or mental defects of the leader, will be ignored, or more likely, attacked.

There is no logic in cults. If the leader tells you, his follower, to give him all your belongings, and your wife, and your daughter, you not only will do as you are told, but you will defend it ardently.

When outsiders point to what they believe to be obvious shortcomings — “He has taken everything for himself and given you nothing” or “He repeatedly lies to you.” — the outsiders are met with hostility.

To normal people, this hostility is illogical. It makes no sense whatsoever. But cults themselves make no sense.

To understand cults, one must look at the followers, not at the leader. Leaders merely step in and reap what the followers already have planted in their own minds.

No one is more angrily certain than a cult member. People who are not cult members cannot understand this. They view it as stupidity.

But, cult followers are not stupid, though their lack of reason makes them seem so. Instead, they are the world’s most needy people.

They believe life has been unjust to them. They wake up angry, and they go to bed angry at what they perceive to be the unfairness of it all.

They eagerly believe the leader who tells them:

“This is not your fault. It is the fault of bad people — foreigners, Muslims, the press, the establishment, gays, immigrants, liberals, communists, Mexicans, Jews, politicians.  These people have cheated you out of what rightfully is yours.

“If not for them, you could have been great. But I alone can punish them and I will make you great, again.”

The followers desperately want a leader who will give them promises. It doesn’t matter that the promises won’t be kept. The promises provide hope and hope is sufficient reward.

In a cult, the leader is the ant queen, and the followers are the ants. Everything focuses on the queen. There is no concern for the ants.

Cult leaders know this. They know that the more ridiculous the statements and demands put upon the followers, the more fervently the followers will believe.

Cult leaders and followers play a game:

The leader tests the followers with illogical statements and requests, and the followers try to demonstrate their fealty by passing those tests, i.e by believing and defending.

Then the process is repeated, with the tests and demands being made ever more difficult, and the believing and defending ever more impassioned.

If you, an outsider, point out the leader’s selfish lies and the impossibility of the leader keeping his promises, it is you, not the leader, who will be hated, for it is you who is perceived as trying to destroy the dreams the leader offers.

Consider, for example, the usual reaction to any criticism of a cult leader who:

*Cheats thousands of innocent students with a fraudulent school, by promising wealth and success,
*Promises foreign workers well-paying jobs, then cheats them out of their salaries,
*Promises to create jobs by claiming climate change is a “Chinese hoax” that kills jobs,
*Promises to “make America great again,” by demeaning Muslims, Mexicans, all Latinos, gays, immigrants, women and the media.
*Promises strong leadership by showing admiration for strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jon Un, and Rodrigo Duterte,
*Promises openness and honesty, then reneges on his promises to release his tax returns and put his businesses in a blind trust,
*Promises health protection by claiming he will replace an insurance program with “something much better,” then puts forth a bill that takes from the poor and gives to the rich
*Promises to protect his followers’ health, then tells them vaccination causes autism,
*Promises to “drain the swamp,” then hires wealthy “swamp” bankers for his advisors,
*Promises to protect his followers from Mexican rapists and criminals by building a wall and forcing Mexico to pay for it.
*Refuses to accept any blame for anything, ever.

Promises, illogical or broken, have no effect on cult members. All they desire is for someone to promise them heaven, even when they know deep in their hearts that heaven does not await them.

Doubt does not appear when cult members are reminded that their leader:

Lied that he won the popular vote,
Lied that he had the biggest attendance at his inauguration,
Lied that a bad person tapped his phones,
Lied for years that a bad person is a foreigner,
Has failed to pass any promised legislation, despite his party owning the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court,
Is a nepotist who hired his children as his most important advisors,
Wants to change the Constitution’s “freedom of the press” so he can sue papers for saying things he doesn’t like,
Leaked secrets to the Russian ambassador, in public,
Admires crooked conspiracy theorist Alex Jones,
Has failed to hire enough people to run the various government agencies, and has had to fire some of the people he hired,
Lied to coal miners he would bring them jobs despite the impossibility due to mechanization
May be the most psychologically immature and unstable leader in our history

To a cult follower, neither fact nor disappointments matter. The leader can do no wrong. There are people who still admire Hitler and Stalin. They know these men were mass murderers, but these cult leaders promised to make Germany and Russia great again.

The people were told the troubles that enveloped pre-war Germany and Russia were not the fault of the Germans and Russians. The troubles were the fault of the Jews.

“It’s not your fault. It’s not my fault. It’s their fault.” 

A cult leader never admits error. Never. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, a cult leader always will deny fault.

There is one other peculiarity about cults. To deflect any criticism, cult followers have been given short, pre-programmed responses.

Tell the Trump cult followers any criticisms or their leader, and their responses will be some version of:

*Obama was worse.
*Bill Clinton was worse.
*Hillary would have been worse.

They seldom will attempt to defend the leader’s innocence. They know in their hearts that he is guilty, but they don’t care. He is their golden-haired hero, so the only defense is “[Blank] was worse.”

If you mention the criminality of Trump University and the Trump Foundation, his followers won’t defend them. Instead, they inexplicably will say, “Hillary should be locked up.”

Of course, this doesn’t exonerate Trump, but it seems sufficient for followers that they can name someone they hate.

If you mention Donald Trump’s groping of women and cheating on his wives, they will say, “Bill Clinton was worse,” as though somehow that excuses Trump.

If you mention Trump’s incessant lying, they will excuse it by saying “Hillary lied, more.”

Any offense is excused if someone else’s offense (especially an offense, real or imagined, of someone from another party) can be brought forth.

The illogic of these responses escapes cult followers. Cults have no logic. Trump said it himself: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.“

That is the sure sign of a cult: An immaculate, inculpable leader.

So do not despair. You cannot argue away a cult. No reason can penetrate. Cults must run their course. And generally, they don’t just fade away. They usually fail in some resounding, spectacular fashion, with many people injured or dying.

All you can do is pray you escape the inevitable cataclysm.

Meanwhile,  if ever you find yourself arguing about some cult leader with one of his followers, and the follower refuses to understand or even listen to the facts, but instead greets your comments with sneers and bile, try to be compassionate.

A cult follower cannot admit the failings of his leader, for such an admission will leave him with no one to blame, no self-respect, no hope.

He will believe he has nothing.

Later, after the cult has ended in ignominy, which it must, there will remain a core of believers, who will defend the indefensible, forever.

Considering what they have lost, be kind to them.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

THOUGHTS

•All we have are partial solutions; the best we can do is try.

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money no matter how much it taxes its citizens.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY