Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America

Journalist Borden (I Totally Meant to Do That) argues that since its genesis, the U.S. has had a unique propensity for doomsday cults. She surveys this American predilection from its earliest manifestations in Christopher Columbus, who had fantasies of conquering Jerusalem after he crossed the Atlantic, and the similarly millenarian-minded Puritans to the modern-day “large group awareness training seminars” used by groups like NXIVM and multilevel marketing companies like Amway to instill a Puritan-esque work ethic in their members. Borden hypothesizes that Americans are susceptible to doomsday-ism because they are “WEIRD”—“western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic”—and are thus psychologically different from the rest of the world, where people are less individualistic and thus conformist. In America, this nonconformism breeds anxiety, which, combined with the loneliness inherent in a hyper-individualistic culture, draws people toward apocalyptic strains of thought that offer both the direction and connection they seek. It is unclear from this explanation what Borden makes of the proliferation of cults in a country like Japan, which has ample conformism but also a loneliness epidemic. Omissions like this, along with Borden’s rallying cry that “our birthright is not only to be driven by doomsday dreams but to be the apotheosis of WEIRD society”—a task ambiguously framed as realizable through “the bridging of divides”—make this unconvincing. There’s a lot of rich research here, but it doesn’t quite gel. (Mar.)