This week we have a very intriguing topic for you: cults! In “Cultish: The language of fanaticism” Amanda Montell explores different cultlike groups and how they use language to their advantage – and how even you are probably surrounded by cultish language and why that’s not always necessarily a bad thing.

With such a huge spectrum of cultures, religions and languages present in our society, it’s natural for most of us to seek ones that we can identify with. Within these cultural bubbles we spend most of our time, make and lose friends, study and work. We become familiar with its intricate social hierarchies and customs and frequently even its terminology.

Us vs. Them

Groups in general exhibit an inclination towards aiming for exclusivity – be it intentional or not. Sharing an insider within your friend group or using specific language (or even dressing a certain way and buying products that are common in your social bubble) signals your membership to others. This is only natural and mostly harmless; we all want to belong and feel like we are part of something bigger. Yet, as Amanda Montell points out in her book, the more we take this to its extremes, the more we become aware of how much danger lies in such a distinction between “Us” and “Them”.

Everything’s a cult.

Throughout the six or so chapters, the book discusses a great variety of cults and cultish companies or communities. Montell debunks a variety of myths about cults, like “brainwashing” – people can’t be pressured to join cults and accepts views, when they really aren’t willing to on their own accord – and gives us an insight into what might constitute as cultish (turns out, most of us have been part of groups and activities that at least have cultish tendencies). She includes an impressive number of interviews with not only a huge array of ex-Cult members, but also SoulCycle trainers – a fitness “cult” revolving around cycling on stationary bikes in a group with personal trainers yelling aggressively motivational bullshit (in case you want to be entertained, take a look at their website https://www.soul-cycle.com) – and even personal anecdotes relating to her own experiences with Scientology.

The topics she discusses range from MLMs (barely legal pyramid schemes targeted at suburbian stay-at-home moms) to bigger cultish movements, especially those that ended tragically. It is as she says, “When it comes to gurus and their groupies, we just can’t seem to look away.” (p. 10). Most importantly, Montell stresses the extreme importance that language plays in our daily lives, for example to signal to others that you’re “part of the group” or give different meaning to seemingly harmless words.

An especially jarring example of such “loaded language” are so-called “thought-terminating clichés”, essentially empty phrases used to end debates without really making a valid point. While this may sound far-fetched in the beginning, just look at some of these examples and think about what they are trying to say:

“It is what it is.”
“To each their own.”
“Rules are rules.”
“Boys will be boys.”
“Fake news.”

Do you see the pattern?

Review

Although it might seem a bit like a cliché, the phrases “I definitely could not put the book down” and “it was an absolute page turner” would perfectly describe my experience with reading Cultish. Obviously the topic in and of itself is fascinating, but Montell just does a really good job of laying out the confusing world of cults in simple terms and relating her ideas to our everyday lives. You’ll be surprised by the amount of cultish tactics you’ll recognize in your own life after reading this book!

I absolutely adore the writing style she chose in order to discuss the various aspects of her thesis regarding the correlation between cults and language. She manages to balance having a fun and loose flair to her style of argumentation while also maintaining a rather scientific approach to how she presents her research and conclusions.

Unfortunately, she falls into the typically American trap of assuming that her country is the single-most relevant plane of existence. Her focus thus lies mainly on topics relating to American cults. Personally, I felt like this hindered her from truly exploring all the possible ways cults might creep into our daily lives. I wish she would’ve gone a bit outside of the box and featured other related ideas. For example, how language and manipulation are used in communist countries such as North Korea or perhaps terrorist groups in order to gain a loyal following.

But since this is a topic Montell is obviously passionate about, this book reads more than anything like a memoir, with her own voice constantly shining through.

The insights you’ll gain while reading Cultish will make you question anything and everything that sounds even slightly cultish (did you know Scientologists have their own dictionary that you have to learn??). But it also allows you to understand why some people may (more or less willingly) join cults and makes this group of “others” seem a little bit more like “us”.

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