A Liberal Education is The Best Defense Against Cults
My dad always praised the education he received at Lake Forest College and Loyola University and Loyola Law School.
He said to me on many occasions, “Gary, nothing beats a good, liberal arts background because you learn to THINK for yourself!”
The other day as I was looking at collegiate web sites, I happened upon Occidental College’s home page.
Its stated aim, which I paraphrase here, is to help students to:
(1) Think critically;
(2) Express themselves clearly; and
(3) Seek out multiple viewpoints.
While I would add a few things to this list, including an appreciation of the arts, I believe it sums up what a well rounded citizen should do, not only to achieve a meaningful life, but to make a contribution and to perpetuate democratic values.
More important, if a person is trained to do these things, he or she will probably be able to resist falling prey to countless “cults,” to political extremism, and to abusive organizations and individuals.
I was researching cults, and I discovered a checklist of their characteristics.
Among other things, cults:
(1) Revere a single individual above all others, a founder or a leader of some kind. (Think: Jim Jones and the Jonestown Kool-Aid mass suicide debacle.)
(2) Govern carefully the introduction of outside information into the group. One viewpoint is systematically repeated to the exclusion of all others.
(3) Punish doubters or those who stray from doctrinal purity.
(4) Try to be “all things to all people.”
(5) Repudiate at least some of the surrounding society’s goals, such as the earning of material goods, abundance, and money.
If you have obtained a liberal education, either by attending college or through another means such as extensive reading, you have been inoculated to resist the lure of cults, whether you are aware of it or not.
You’re likely to doubt the superiority of one person over all others, especially if he or his minions compel you to do so. Having studied the greats, the ancients, and the best thinkers, you realize that there are intellectual giants, but the mouthpiece that leads the cult is not one of them.
You seek many viewpoints, as Occidental’s catalog mentions. And if you believe you have found bedrock truth, a voice inside of you always reserves the right to bring this into doubt, now or in the future. You’re likely to change your opinions several times during your days, eschewing dogmatism, and this is not only normal for a thinking person, but desirable.
You realize the enemy of reason, the one who would stop debate, squelch competing views, and punish free thinkers, is the enemy of mankind. The antidote for unpopular or disagreeable speech isn’t repression, but expression; more speech, more discussion, an open airing of views.
You appreciate that credibility is usually subject-specific. A surgeon, no matter how finely trained and skilled, is no more authoritative about other topics than you are. His opinion about philosophy, morality, politics, business, or any other human endeavor is very possibly of no value to anyone, including himself. If you’re a trained mind, you don’t confer power to him in areas that are irrelevant to his one area of expertise and experience.
You suspect that a person who persistently devalues what society values, and what you value, has a personal problem with those goals, and that problem may not be yours, or be something you should adopt as your own. General George S. Patton observed that if you listen to a person who consistently criticizes something it is usually a revelation of that person’s primary weakness.
A liberal education isn’t a panacea, as the liberally educated would be the first to admit.
But it certainly beats ignorance and those that would deny others their freedom.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is quoted in prominent publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. President of Clientrelations.com and Customersatisfaction.com, his seminars and training programs are sponsored internationally and he is a top-rated faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of management and consulting experience to the table, with the best academic credentials in the speaking and training industry. A Ph.D. from the Annenberg School For Communication at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola,