There are "soft cults." These are the hardest to escape from. They exercise conformity through subtle peer pressure. We pick them up like peppermints at a restaurant. We don't even think about them. They follow us everywhere we go, and stick to us like wet candy.
You only really know they exist when you find yourself sacrificing your independence to a cause that's very far away from you. There's usually a cloud of powerlessness around them so they are easy to identify. There can be good soft cults, too. But let's focus on the ones that drain the self like a vampire.
The term "cultural appropriation" is one of these soft cults at work. One finds themselves having to sacrifice their own sense of fashion in an effort to conform to a group standard. Without doing so, they convince themselves they must be a cruel insensitive creature. They are cruel in how they choose to adorn themselves. This is a form of bondage.
Thought cults work the same way. People are supposed to conform to a feeling or an ideal. It becomes a knee-jerk reaction since everyone is subconsciously looking to others to give them a cue. We're supposed to really like one thing and be disgusted by another. It's a blockchain of who's hip and who's square.
This cultology begins in our teens as a function of sociology. We grow up in closets and attempt to stay sane because we all want to be accepted. Luckily, we all have heros growing up that eventually grow into their own skin and break the yoke. This ends up freeing everyone as the bigotry of cohesion is finally reveal to be nothing but superficial.
The brave who break through are seldom judged as heros until long after they are gone. Typically, they suffer the most arrows as the cult feels a threat to its control. This real psychological phenomenon is called "groupthink." It pervades every sector and it always shows itself as the abandonment of self. It served as a sacrifice to the group. It demonstrates loyalty, scores virtue, and establishes a pecking order.
We lose friends when we stand up in our freedom. We're like a bird forced out of the nest. It feels lke a kind of death because it is one. Its the death of our external ego. It was an important facade we used as an incubator; a shell that no longer fits.
Make America Great Again means "Make Tennessee Great Again". A state who earned its fame from voluntaryism. It means "Make Oregon Great Again" and Iowa and Virginia. It's a restoration of power to the land and its people. It's also internal. It's make Josh great again or Andy or Cindy. It's a restoration of pride in the individual. A cult of one has no followers, it only has a leader.
Your carbon footprint is a blessing not a curse.
The same pride you feel for a nation will raise an Amish barn in the afternoon. The racism in the rebel flag is a cult telling you to sit down and not to trust your own region. Learn to find these manipulations. Recognize the truth that you DID build that. Find the center of your power. It's locked inside a cage of ribs.
Don't be the Olympic ice skater who reduces himself to a genital preference and then sacrifices a chance of a lifetime to visit the White House. Regrets are a silent acid that sits in the stomach forever. You only have one chance to do something monumental.
