Are You in a Cult? Are you sure?

Christopher Jacob
4 min readJan 22, 2023

Niccolò Machiavelli is one of history’s most politically influential strategists. His manifesto The Prince is one of his most well-known publications.

Machiavelli lays out a plan for dominating and controlling others in his manifesto: “Never gain by force what may be won by deception.”

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Cult leaders who employ this tactic are the most successful. If you’re from the south, you were almost certainly exposed to some version of Judeo-Christian faith as a child and have likely maintained it as an adult. When was the last time you gave your hard-earned money to some random person in a robe who happened to memorize a book that was published thousands of years ago?

Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash

What happens to all that free untaxed money? Does it go into restoring Jesus’ tomb or Muhammed’s mausoleum?

Or does it feed into a cult leader’s opulent lifestyle? Those who wear the cloth do so to hide; those who speak kindly do so to manipulate the emotions of others; those who preach about God do so to appear as good in the eyes of others. And those who believe in the cloth, the kind words, and the preaching will also

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Christopher Jacob

Come as you are. Doused in Mud, Soaked in Bleach. Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, and Business. Two-time International Award-Winning Writer and Editor.