While taking time out to work on a different article, I had occasion to return to Sheri S. Tepper’s fantasy novel Marianne, the Magus, and the Manticore. A previously overlooked speech there is a very good counterweight to the offending passage. It puts what Antonia White tells us about her Catholic boarding school into context; it suggests that she was treated like a cult member.
Antonia White’s alarming school story
Antonia White said that while the nuns at the convent school she attended did not crush the spirits of the pupils - high spirits and general childish naughtiness were not discouraged - they cracked down hard on any attempts to show independence of mind and tried to stamp it out:
“Through years of training, the nuns had learned to recognise the faintest signs of such an attitude, and it was severely repressed. They could detect it the slightest thing...an inclination to answer back, and, most of all, in the faintest speculation in matters of faith. The world was waiting for us outside, with its Satan-set traps of heresy, free thought and easy morals, and the whole object of our education was to arm us against its snares...Mental pride... the most dangerous of all our temptations.”
Many people will be outraged by this, and for several reasons.
It seems criminal to me, not to mention self-defeating. Surely the best way to arm the pupils against the snares of Satan is to teach them critical thinking! If they are trained to accept what they are told without question, what happens when they meet an unscrupulous member of the forces of darkness?
If the case for something is strong, using a devil’s advocate should make it even stronger. It is a very bad sign if questions are not permitted and constructive criticism isn’t welcome.
Just as it is a great relief to turn from depressing to amusing material, it is very beneficial to see what enlightened people have to say about the difference between a cult and a religion.
Makr Avehl balances the books
The magus Makr Avehl says this when discussing religion with Marianne:
"The difference between a true religion—and there are many which share aspects of truth—and a dangerous cult is only this: In the one the individual is freed to grow and live and learn; in the other the individual is subordinated to the will of a hierarchy, enslaved to the purposes of that hierarchy, forbidden to learn except what the cult would teach. You have only to look at the rules which govern the servants of a religion to know whether its god is God indeed, or devil!"
This is spot on; it is yet more independent confirmation of the standard definition of an evil cult.
If the case for something is strong, using a devil’s advocate should make it even stronger. It is a very bad sign if questions are not permitted and constructive criticism isn’t welcome.
Just as it is a great relief to turn from depressing to amusing material, it is very beneficial to see what enlightened people have to say about the difference between a cult and a religion.
Makr Avehl balances the books
The magus Makr Avehl says this when discussing religion with Marianne:
"The difference between a true religion—and there are many which share aspects of truth—and a dangerous cult is only this: In the one the individual is freed to grow and live and learn; in the other the individual is subordinated to the will of a hierarchy, enslaved to the purposes of that hierarchy, forbidden to learn except what the cult would teach. You have only to look at the rules which govern the servants of a religion to know whether its god is God indeed, or devil!"
This is spot on; it is yet more independent confirmation of the standard definition of an evil cult.
Another example from a religious cult
Cults were discussed in detail on the old Conservative Conspiracy Forum, one based on Roman Catholicism in particular.
One of my posts quoted this statement by an ex-member:
“Another member told me that my ‘downfall’ to living a vocation was...my analytical mind.”
This had much the same effect on me as Antonia White’s account of the crushing of independent thought by the teachers in her school did.
My comments at the time:
“This really hits home. They try to destroy anything that stops them getting total power over you, anything that helps to keep you sane and gives you a foothold in the real world.
They do not permit you to do what you do best. An analytical mind is a gift; it needs to be developed and trained; it is not too common so should be recognised and valued.
I wonder what the Jesuits would think of that one. They seem just as bad in their way, but they are selected for their intellectual abilities..."
Independent thinking
In order to survive, never mind thrive, in this world, it is essential to be on guard against people with ulterior motives and a hidden agenda.
While the crushing of any questioning of the official party line may not affect some children too badly, the effect on others can be devastating. Telling very impressionable children not to contradict, not to answer back, to do what they are told and speak only when they are spoken to can set them up for a lifetime of failure and exploitation.
Questioning everything, not taking anything at face value, calling people out, challenging them and taking them up when they make invalid points are essential survival skills.
There is much more that could be said on this subject, but it is best to let the quoted passages speak for themselves.
