Arthur Koestler on the psychology of conversion. Be it Corbynism, Critical race theory 'antiracism', XR, Nazism or Communism, once the convert has 'seen the light', life takes on meaning. And the fear of losing that deafens the new recruit to all challenges to his new faith. 
An intellectually closed word... a universal method of thought ... a cure for all that ails man ... which deprives him of his critical faculties.
You cannot bring a convert back to reality by objective argument. Just five minutes of Twitter proves that.
You cannot bring a convert back to reality by objective argument. Just five minutes of Twitter proves that.
All doubts and questions are dispelled by the prophet or his lieutenants. Questioning disciples are rebuffed with argument that their thought processes are still contaminated by the world outside. Objective reasoning becomes impossible: truth is now whatever the cult says it is.
The atmosphere inside the closed system is highly charged ... objectivity replaced by emotional fervour (Corbyn/Glastonbury, Nuremburg rallies) ... and history is revised/erased/invented to answer all challenges to the idea that only through the cult can utopia be obtained.
I find myself returning again & again to these passages. That Koestler can write them in the 1950s about his experience in the 1930s & we can recognise them today, shows that this phenomenon is a constant in every generation.
(from Arthur Koestler, 'Arrow in the Blue', p.182-3)
(from Arthur Koestler, 'Arrow in the Blue', p.182-3)
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