Cult Description by J. R. Eiser

Social Psychologist J. R. Eiser, has a good description of cultic characteristics that can be applied to many groups, including Scientology and Anonymous. One would need to have at least some experience in dealing with critics to see how these apply. My comments on how it applies to Anonymous (Scientology is obvious) are in parenthesis below the numeric points.

(1) An illusion of invulnerability, shared by most or all the members, which creates excessive optimism and encourages taking extreme risks.

(Note: Obvious among anons. One may also remember ARS in its early days. Similar optimism, enthusiasm and feeling of invulnerability were displayed.)

(2) Collective efforts to rationalise in order to discount warnings which might lead the members to reconsider their assumptions before they recommit themselves to their past policy decisions.

(Note: I have seen and been in communication with a couple of anons who got to think a bit deeper than the assertions they found on critical web sites. Expression of these doubts in the anons community was indeed subject to group pressure to rationalize them away.)

(3) An unquestioned belief in the group's inherent morality, inclining the members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.

(4) Stereotyped views of rivals and enemies as too evil to warrant genuine attempts to negotiate, or as too weak and stupid to counter whatever risky attempts are made to defeat their purposes.

(5) Direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, making clear that this type of dissent is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members.

(Note: this is extremely prevalent in ARS, OCMB or other Old Guard or Anonymous fora. Try it out for the Lulz and you will see this mechanism triggering itself very quickly!)

(6) Self-censorship of deviations from the apparent group consensus, reflecting each member's inclination to minimise to himself the importance of his doubts and counter-arguments.

(7) A shared illusion of unanimity concerning judgements conforming to the majority view (partly resulting from self-censorship of deviations, augmented by the false assumption that silence means consent).

(8) The emergence of self-appointed mindguards - members who protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions.