Now, after twenty-eight years, my own sense of this

book has changed. I see it as less a specific record of

Maoist China and more an exploration of what might be the most

dangerous direction of the twentieth-century mind—the quest for

absolute or "totalistic" belief systems.

Indeed, that quest has produced nothing short of a worldwide

epidemic of political and religious fundamentalism—of movements

characterized by literalized embrace of sacred texts as containing

absolute truth for all persons, and a mandate for militant, often vio-

lent, measures taken against designated enemies of that truth or

mere unbelievers. The epidemic includes fundamentalist versions of

existing religions and political movements as well as newly emerging

groups that may combine disparate ideological elements.

These latter groups are often referred to as cults, now a somewhat

pejorative designation, so that some observers prefer the term new

religions. But I think we can speak of cults as groups with certain

characteristics: first, a charismatic leader, who tends increasingly to

become the object of worship in place of more general spiritual prin-

ciples that are advocated; second, patterns of "thought reform" akin

to those described in this volume, and especially in Chapter 22; and

third, a tendency toward manipulation from above with considerable

exploitation (economic, sexual, or other) of ordinary supplicants or

recruits who bring their idealism from below.

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