Red-Haired Ash Reads

“Cults don’t start with mass suicide or pledges to storm the Capitol. They start with small things: a shared belief, an inspiring leader, a feeling of belonging. They start with language—words like awakening, truth, resistance, patriotism. And before long, that language becomes identity, and identity becomes dogma. The most dangerous ideas aren’t shouted—they’re whispered in living rooms, reinforced in group chats and family dinners, slowly absorbed until they feel like common sense…”

The Culting of America dives into the invisible systems of control that shape the lives of Americans. This is a blend of personal narrative, research, and cultural critique that introduces a ten part framework to identifying cultish behavior. 

After reading Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism a few months ago, I was really interested in reading this and seeing what Young adds to cultish dynamics and how to identify them. While this took me a while to get through, it wasn’t because it was boring or a slog, but because I was just taking so many notes on the information presented. Young weaves her experiences growing up in the Children of God cult with research on ten different aspects of cult behavior. Her ten steps were very well presented and made total sense, especially once you got the explanation behind it. 

“Americans love to worship, whether it’s a pop music star who makes them feel empowered and understood, a CEO who will lead them to abundance, a religious leader who will teach them how to be righteous and give them a ticket to heaven, or a politician who will help them take their country back.”

Young shows how so many groups in America today that are accepted, but can actually be considered cults or have cult-like tendencies. Things like the military, Alcoholics Anonymous, Corporations, and of course, religions. I really agree with all her assessments of these different groups, especially the military being a cult, and it makes me realize why I have been so leery of most of the organizations/institutions she discussed as having cultish behaviors/ are a cult. 

“We are— and always have been, since those first religious extremists, the Pilgrims, set foot on American soil— a nation defined by the distrust of institutions, a persecution complex, and stubborn self-righteousness. In many ways, cults are the most American thing there is.”

Young argues that the reason why cults are so prevalent in America is because if we get to the root of American cult experience we find the cults of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism that everyone has been indoctrinated by. This makes a lot of sense to me and really opened my eyes to how deep cultish behavior is in America. 

Overall, I think this was a well presented and well researched look at cults in America and how our system easily creates them, so I highly recommend this book. I also appreciated that this book ends in helpful guides that basically hit on all the main points discussed in this book and provides checklists so you can review the organizations you are a part of. 

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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