Ansiedades de Influência: Teoria da Conspiração e Cultura Terapêutica na América do Milênio

Neste capítulo de livro, publicado originalmente em 2003, Susan Harding e Kathleen Stewart analisam a explosão de teorias da conspiração nos Estados Unidos do pós-Guerra. Elas evitam o apelo comum de isolar o pensamento conspiratório como mero padrão hermenêutico exótico ou tipo de ideologia específica ao tratá-lo como parte de uma “estrutura de sentimento”, “sistema nervoso” e “discurso metacultural” amplo, difuso e inclusivo, apesar de atualizado em diversas intensidades. A “ansiedade de influência”, o sentimento agudo de estarmos sendo manipulados pelos próprios sistemas de expertise que sustentam a ordem contemporânea, dá vazão a uma semiótica ansiosa, obcecada pela leitura de “sinais” que desvelam uma Verdade final intencionalmente obscurecida e gera práticas encarnadas que funcionam simultaneamente como cura e sintoma. Essa estrutura paranoica de sentimento é analisada por meio de uma cuidadosa reconstituição etnográfica de duas comunidades “remanescentes”: o apocalipticismo otimista da igreja pentecostal-carismática Calvary Church e o trágico, mas igualmente otimista, “plano de fuga” extraterreno do movimento de base ufológica Heaven’s Gate.

The Language of Destructive Cults

Destructive cults are the most notable damaging religious groups in society where leaders convince their followers to engage in destructive acts. Examples of such cults include Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate led by Marshall Applewhite who convinced their followers to commit mass suicide. Previous research into destructive cults has mainly focused on their social-psychological development. This research breaks new ground by examining the patterns of linguistic features in the sermons of destructive cults indicating the characteristics of their language using keyness analyses. The main data sets are the sermons of Jim Jones and the sermons of Marshall Applewhite in the period leading to mass suicide. As a benchmark, these sermons were compared to the sermons of Billy Graham and the sermons of Rick Warren, leaders of mainstream religious groups. The findings show that the language of destructive cults based on the sermons of the leaders upholds extreme non-religious ideologies that cannot be found in the sermons of mainstream religious groups. The styles of their language focus on othering, intensifying, elaborating, and negating with the aim of controlling their followers. The results may allow destructive cults to be identified before damaging events occur.

Intolerance toward “New” Religions in the Twentieth Century

This chapter examines the power of the “cult” stereotype and how it is used against minority religious groups rhetorically, legally, and, in some cases, violently. The primary sources, ranging from internet hoaxes and jokes to FBI memos and city ordinances, demonstrate the ways that technology, law enforcement, and laws are embroiled in the spread and enactment of religious intolerance against minority religious groups. Readers explore the “cult” stereotype and these patterns through a series of case studies, including Unificationism, Wicca, Heaven’s Gate, the Nation of Islam, and Santería.