Dave and Cults: Part 2

Kay I must say that's all very good stuff there. I never realized it could be so simple for them to recruit people by just going door to door. Well if that doesnt demonstrate the sinister abilities of cults, then surely this will. Going back to the AUM Supreme Truth cult, led by a half blind messiah named Shoko Asahara (which is his adopted name) the cult flourished in Japan because of Japan's religious freedom laws. This prevented the police from taking serious action against the cult for fear of causing an uproar over their rights to practice their religion. But this raises another question, when is it right to violate someone elses freedom? Surely if that person is a danger to society, the law should be brought to bear on them. Unfortunatly, sometimes people dont seem to do this unless something directly violates their own interests. Take the invasion of Iraq for instance, the purported purpose of the invasion was to topple the evil Saddam Hussein, but was that really the purpose? During the Gulf War the Americans had the perfect opportunity to topple Saddam...but didnt. Could the regions billions of dollars in oil have anything to do with it? Hmmm... I think so. But, AUM, through their manipulations, had made quite a number of memberships within their cult. Soon, they were expanding not just to the rest of Japan, but to Europe, China, and America...hell, even Russia got a piece of the AUM action. At their height, the cult leaders were boasting finances well into the billions of dollars (likely exaggerated) nevertheless, with all their money, the cult decided not so much to donate to the community as to build biological weapons. The central philosophy of the cult was that Armageddon was coming, and only those armed with their faith would survive. To prepare for this, they launced a devastating sarin gas attack on the Tokyo Subway. Thousands were injured and twelve were killed. Many suffered horrific disfigurments: one woman had her contact lenses "welded" to her eyes, and had to have both eyes surgically removed. Only now did the police realize the extreme danger that the cult represented. While this realization is good, in my opinion, it came too late. If police had cracked down on this doomsday cult, then none of this may have happened. The problem with the police and cults is that whenever cults begin to show certain warning signs, the police never seem to act. Before Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple, ordered mass suicide of of a huge number of his followers and put a bullet through his brain, the authorities had been warned that Jones had been tightening his grip on the members of his circle. They were told of Jones' obsession with sex and his abuse of some of the cult members, and here, once again police acted too late. In the end, we're only human, and we sometimes ignore in others what could inevitably prove to be a danger in the future. A child who is violent while young may seem like they'll "grow out of it" as the parents say, but in truth, the child will only get more violent and more bold if nothing is done. This could also be said about cults. If you have a small cult which is practicing questionable things and wont let its members leave, the matter should be looked into. But, if you've got a large and wealthy cult which is practicing questionable things and wont let its members leave, they should be dealt with immediatly, because the larger and more powerful the cult, the more damage they can do and the more they are likely to do if they see that the police will not stop them until its too late.