I’m glad Jimmy Kimmel is back on air. Many people canceling their Disney subscriptions made a difference and reminded this administration that real power lies with the people. Still, I wish he — and others with such platforms — dared to go deeper. We need more than jokes about the circus; we need voices willing to expose the roots of violence and the psychological mechanisms that allow charlatans like Charlie Kirk to capture so many followers.
Alice Miller described this dynamic perfectly in her essay Gurus and Cult Leaders: How They Function:
“People growing up in a spirit of liberty and tolerance, accepted in childhood for what they are, rather than being throttled and stunted by their upbringing, would hardly place themselves at the mercy of a cult group of their own accord. … Many people joining such groups seem completely indifferent to the fact that their new surroundings are powered by mechanisms expressly designed to subjugate them, to rob them of the freedom to think, to act, and feel as they see fit.”
The tragedy is that most people never understand the price they pay for submission. Their childhood repression blinds them to the manipulation at play. They follow “gurus” — whether religious figures, political cult leaders, or media personalities — who promise healing or salvation but only reenact their own unresolved wounds on a mass scale.
We saw it at Charlie Kirk’s funeral, which was less a farewell and more a performance. Thousands of young people, their minds hijacked by propaganda, celebrated a man whose words fueled hatred and division. This is not democracy; it is theater, driven by repression, illusions, and the unconscious craving for authority.
The lesson is clear: until childhood repression is faced honestly, humanity will continue to seek “strong leaders” who only repeat the cruelties of the past. And the cult will go on.
š Read Alice Miller’s full essay here: Gurus and Cult Leaders: How They Function
Notice: Transcript is AI and human-generated
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