Owen Kelly & Ken Worpole look at cults and sects: at how we can define these, why they spread, and what this means for cultural democracy.
Owen Kelly and Ken Worpole follow their discussion about the ways in which experiments with living arrangements regularly occur and then reoccur. In this month’s episode they look at cults: at how we can define these, why they grow and spread, and what this means for cultural democracy.
Their conversation begins with an article of Ken Worpole’s called 6 Days in a 70s Utopia, which New Humanist published in their Summer 2019 edition. This recounts the story of a visit from a group in Hackney to a small town in Denmark where a dedicated group led a radical experiment in education and living.
The discussion then broadens to take in questions of definition: between cults and sects, and between religious communities and political groups. This draws from a wide range of reference points.