open/close all folders
Literature
There was one thing which you would find it hard to understand about the Commune; and that is, why we all submitted to it — for day after day, month after month. Some of the cats had been there for years. They had lost all desire for freedom or independence or a proper feline existence and they accepted Tom-Cat's authority without question. The Commune was described as a brotherhood, and we were all obliged to call each other brother (even the female cats were called brother). But nothing was less like a brotherhood. The whole structure of life in the Commune was hierarchical. Tom-Cat ruled it with an absolute authority which would have been the envy of any human sultan or tyrant.
— Stray
Live-Action TV
I've been involved in a number of cults. As both a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader.
— Creed Bratton, The Office (US)
Roseanne: Edelweiss Corrections School? What's that, some kind of brainwashing camp?
David: No, it says right on the brochure - "This is not a brainwashing camp."
David: No, it says right on the brochure - "This is not a brainwashing camp."
— Roseanne, "Springtime For David"
Music
On Cracker Island, it was born
To the Collective of the Dawn
They were planting seeds at night
To grow a made-up paradise
Where the truth was Auto-Tuned (Forever cult)
And it's sadness I consumed (Forever cult)
Into my formats every day (Forever cult)
In the end, I had to pay (What world is this?)
In the end, I had to pay (I purged my soul)
In the end I had to pay (I drank to write)
Nothing more to say (I drank to write)
To the Collective of the Dawn
They were planting seeds at night
To grow a made-up paradise
Where the truth was Auto-Tuned (Forever cult)
And it's sadness I consumed (Forever cult)
Into my formats every day (Forever cult)
In the end, I had to pay (What world is this?)
In the end, I had to pay (I purged my soul)
In the end I had to pay (I drank to write)
Nothing more to say (I drank to write)
— Gorillaz (feat. Thundercat), "Cracker Island"
Deep in the dark of the woods where secrets sleep
We serve he who waits beneath
Give the flesh, ascension seek
From the lamb who herds the sheep
In the dark of the woods we pledge our lives
Sages say that faith is blind
Arms raised high in sacrifice
Pull down wool over our eyes
We serve he who waits beneath
Give the flesh, ascension seek
From the lamb who herds the sheep
In the dark of the woods we pledge our lives
Sages say that faith is blind
Arms raised high in sacrifice
Pull down wool over our eyes
Tabletop Games
Cults exist. They may exist anywhere. They may be acting out debauched ceremonies in the lodgings next door. You may be a member yourself, an unknowing (or knowing! worshiper of the black faith. Inquisitors and Witch Hunters work and fight during the day or night. But they are but a crumbling breakwater, against which the growing tide of the foolish seduced who enter unholy pacts, and ensnare others to follow them into damnation. The breakwater will one day collapse, and the dark lords will one day run riot through our lands with the ignorant multitudes cavorting at their feet.
It has never been proven that Chaos cultists are anything more than the product of the fevered imaginations of certain of the more zealous Witch Hunters. Why they have to go on and on about "corruption from within" and "debased orgiastic sects of the Lord of Pleasure" when the real danger is the Marauders of the north, I'll never know. I ask you, what motivation could these successful merchants, nobles and scholars have for allying with Chaos, when they already hold positions of such eminence within the Empire? It would be like a queen bee poisoning her own hive.
— Professor Albrecht Kinear, speaking at a commission to advise the Elector of Nuln on the threat of Chaos, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Albrecht Kinear, former Professor of the University of Nuln, this court finds you guilty of trafficking with Daemons and selling your soul to Chaos. You profaned the high office and renown with which you were entrusted when you joined the Silver Wheel Society here in Nuln, and you compounded your damnation when you steeped yourself so thoroughly in its dark and sorcerous teachings as to be made its leader. Your already unforgivable crimes are made still worse by your continual deliberate misdirection of legitimate authority with your false pronouncements on Chaos and many another matter. Gunther, Hans - take him outside and burn him. Now.
— Vorster Pike, Witch Hunter, speaking at a commission to advise the Elector of Nuln on the threat of Chaos, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
The only cult we do not abhor is that of the Emperor!
— Imperial Thought for the Day, Warhammer 40,000
Video Games
Most people don't realize they're in a cult until it's too late. You start off excited about some better way to live, then progress to worshiping some drug-ravaged sexagenarian psychopath, then progress to worshiping the penis of some drug-ravaged sexagenarian psychopath. One day you're smoking weed and knitting clothes in a utopian rural community; then suddenly it's 14 years later and you're standing in the middle of a burning barn with a dead baby in one hand and a cup of poison in the other screaming "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!" at the top of your lungs while people chant outside.
— CULTSTOPPERS, Grand Theft Auto 5
I myself started a sun cult back in... oh, 1979, to test a hypothesis. But by 1980, I had a hundred thousand people ready to leap off the Masada at my command. It was just an experiment, of course, but I was forced into exile for two years after breaking the good news. You'd think they'd be only happy to avoid mass suicide. I don't think most people really appreciate the importance of practical science...
— Iain Tibet Gladstone, The Secret World
Web Original
For the purposes of this podcast we define a cult as: Organizations that rally behind an entity or leader that espouses beliefs outside the norm, organizations that require physical or monetary sacrifice as a condition of membership; organizations in which the doctrines followed by the leader are different than that of the followers, organizations in which isolation is encouraged either by commune living or a policy of disconnection from outside relationships, and organizations that actively recruit new members. All cults might have all or some of these traits and as always these are our opinions.
—Cult Podcast episode intro
DJ Dan: Mike, what is your cult connection?
Listener Mike: Well, I'm listenin' to The Cult...
DJ Dan: That's a band, you dink. People, do I have to explain? No self respecting cult calls itself a cult. The Cult itself is not a cult. And even if it spawned a cult, it certainly would not be a cult, SHUTDOWN!
Listener Mike: Well, I'm listenin' to The Cult...
DJ Dan: That's a band, you dink. People, do I have to explain? No self respecting cult calls itself a cult. The Cult itself is not a cult. And even if it spawned a cult, it certainly would not be a cult, SHUTDOWN!
Western Animation
Hank: Excuse me, are y'all with the cult?
Cultist: We're not a cult. We're an organization that promotes love and-
Hank: Yeah, this is it.
Cultist: We're not a cult. We're an organization that promotes love and-
Hank: Yeah, this is it.
Real Life
It was a mass murder! Because men and women were following a man! And I am going to let everyone of you that are here under this tent - you that are listening to this radio broadcast - MY GOD, DON'T FOLLOW A MAN! Don't follow a church! If you're going to follow somebody, FOLLOW JESUS! FOLLOW JESUS! Look unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of your faith! The Devil is out to destroy every child of God that he can find! Can you shout "amen", somebody?
—Robert Schambach on the massacre of Jonestown
A cult is a religion with no political power.
— Tom Wolfe
