The Ignored Danger of Cults

In the 2019 Arak Journal article titled “Vulnerability: The Bait for Cult Leaders”, author Kayla Tucker reviews how weakness, isolation, dependency and other states like them created the conditions for the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana and other similar phenomena to occur. She argues that each of these states is a product of a single mechanism: vulnerability. In addition, the author asserts that not only are these aspects cyclical, but that vulnerability is the most indicative and dominant factor when determining how cult leaders successfully recruit such a great number of followers. Tucker does a thorough job of logically explaining the numerous reasons she provides as to why vulnerability is “the bait,” in addition to referring to several esteemed experts of the related subjects such as sociology and psychology to strengthen her argument. While the development of her argument is strong, she does not address philosophical inconsistencies between one of her references and her thesis until the end of her work. Throughout her essay, she utilizes descriptive language specifically tailored to convey to the audience how opportunistic and self-serving the cult leaders in question are. Overall, Tucker argues her claim effectively despite a few structural issues. 

To prove that predominantly it is vulnerability that allows cult leaders to indoctrinate their victims, the author cites multiple experts including psychologists and sociologists to effectively explain the psychological and emotional effects of these recruitment methods. Tucker references Ph.D. psychologist, Sharon Farber who states that through loud noises such as ritual drumming and deliberately depriving their followers of essentials like food and sleep, the leaders “assault the senses and break down a person’s ability to think” (Faber 10, in Tucker 27). Tucker argues that they use this vulnerable and mentally dissociated state to rebuild their minds with an ideology of his or her own.