Henry Idema: Cult thinking the greatest threat to democracy
More than 70% of Trump-supporting Republicans in a recent poll said they believe Trump tells the truth, whereas only 42% of them believe their pastors are telling the truth, and family and friends only fair a bit better. The Republican Party is no longer the party of Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan. It's become a cult of personality, not a party of policies on such issues as the national debt and annual deficits. It is instructive to look at Nazi Germany and its cult of personality around Hitler to see how dangerous a religious/political cult is for democracy. So let's look at how Hitler managed to create such a cult:
Hitler needed a slogan that would appeal to a defeated Germany after World War I, so he came up with "I will make Germany great again." In the midst of the Great Depression, his slogan had great appeal.
Hitler needed a scapegoat to blame for Germany's economic woes, largely brought about by the large reparations on Germany following WWI. He literally invented such a scapegoat, the Jews. They only made up 1-2% of Germany's population. But Hitler argued the Jews were the reason for Germany's loss. He also argued Jews controlled industry and the banks, which wasn't true. But after churning out his propaganda machine, under the direction of Joseph Goebbels, Jews quickly became "the other."
Once you have a scapegoat, Hitler knew the next steps were laws and violence against the scapegoat, the Jews.
Hitler's appeal was to the grievances of the German people for their economic plight. His speeches were full of anger and hate, always loud. He channeled this into anger against Jews (and homosexuals and Gypsies). Then Hitler put them into concentration camps, along with his political foes.
Hitler invented "the big lie," that Germany did not lose World War I, it was stolen because Germany was stabbed in the back by the generals, politicians and Jews.
Hitler abolished the democracy that led to his election, then became a dictator who demanded total loyalty; those who opposed him were imprisoned or murdered. Hitler's narcissism needed the adoration of millions to fortify his ego.
The next step to solidify Hitler's religious/political cult was to force churches to support him. Religion and politics merged in the Nazi movement, similarly to the merger of white Evangelicals into the Republican Party; 81% of this bloc supported Trump. Clergy who opposed Hitler were killed or imprisoned. Clergy who publicly oppose Trump, if they dare, often are forced to leave their positions.
Once Hitler controlled all political processes, the churches, and the media, he began to murder people. His first experiments of mass murder were with the mentally ill. Hitler switched from vans killing people with carbon emissions to mass extermination camps that used gas. Hitler also used guns to kill millions but the bullets became too expensive and some soldiers doing the killing had mental breakdowns.
Hitler banned and burned books, especially by Jews such as Freud and Marx.
Now let me refer to observations of Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge in her remarkable book, "Hitler's Last Secretary." She worked for him the last 2 years of his life, and was in the bunker when he committed suicide.
Hitler "was obsessed by the belief that his personality made the impossible possible."
On Hitler's generals and colleagues: "When they left him they felt despairing, crushed, with their former firm and absolute resolve badly shaken, as if they had been hypnotized."
This point is key: A cult leader hypnotizes his followers. As Trump said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a follower.
So, what draws us to a religious and political cult? We transfer to the leader our hopes and dreams, we listen to his every word. His enemies become our enemies. His dreams become our dreams.
The cult leader mirrors us, and we reflect him. In psychological terms, we internalize the image of the leader. He literally lives in us, just as the images of our mothers and fathers live do, guiding us and shaping our values. Rejecting the cult leader means literally rejecting ourselves, or at least a large part of ourselves. Self-awareness of what has happened to us when we joined a cult is very difficult. An attack upon the cult leader feels like an attack on us. To make the psychological break between the cult leader and ourselves is impossible for many people, and always painful for those who make the break.
This is why it was so hard for the German people to exorcize Hitler, because he truly lived in the hearts and minds of so many. It took a world war and millions of lives to break the spell for most Germans, but Hitler still lives on in the minds and hearts of many around the world, including in America.
Religious/political cults around the world are the greatest threats to democracies, including ours.
— Henry Idema lives in Grand Haven. He can be reached at henryidema3@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Henry Idema: Cult thinking the greatest threat to democracy
