How Cults Are Formed

Are the qualities required to become a good cult leader rare? Chief execs are relatively rare, compared to the workplace size. Very high wages are a reflection of a job that requires skills that are scarcer than most other skills. If the skills required to be chief exec were common, then competition would be greater, and it would bid down the wages for being chief exec. 

An increased demand for chief execs may benefit less good chief execs by increasing the pool size, or it may bid up wages if the supply stayed the same. An increased demand for guitar bands won’t necessarily benefit individual guitar bands, because it will probably bring many new aspiring guitar bans into the music scene. But an increased demand for Radiohead will benefit Radiohead because there’s only one of them. 

In other words, it often pays to be unique and different, especially if those qualities stimulate high demand. If your music school has twelve pianists, ten guitar players, and only one drummer – the lone drummer has a greater chance of being in the band.

Leaders of cults (political, religious, environmentalist, social justice, etc) follow a similar pattern, even if what they are selling is almost always garbage. Cult groups are started by a few individuals scattered about in the annals of time. Irrespective of how ubiquitous they become, all cults can be traced back to an inceptive founder who had the charisma and socio-personal skills to acquire the initial following. 

These leaders must have rare characteristics, because if their contributions were not unique, there probably would be many more cults than there are. But yet, on the other hand, the intellect, rational persuasion and likeability of cult leaders is usually of dubious integrity. Which leads me to believe that cults are formed when groups of pliable individuals are (often independently) looking for a leader with rare qualities, and someone steps up and takes advantage of the demand.