When Ideologies Become Cults | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Trials of Ambiguity is based entirely on personal observations; I have made this clear from the project's start. One of the more dystopian nuances that exist in the universe is the uniformity of thought. This is what I consider to be the most terrifying of traits in the story's universe. In each of the two States, all the people of their respective States hold the same exact opinions as though they are ideological clones. From some perspectives in the story, this is described as the State's collective mind.

    The real life parallel of this story can be demonstrated by simply logging into your preferred social network account. There you will see your friends and family chanting the same political slogans. When you interrogate their ideas, you will either be declared a [derogatory term for someone who disagrees with them] for daring to question their political ideals or they will give you an actual reason for their ideals; this reason is the same reason you will get from most people who are part of the same collective mind. Any further discussion will result in the same set of responses uniform to that of their cult. This is why I believe that social media contributes to the death of the individual (a prominent theme in Trials of Ambiguity), but that is a subject for another time.

    These cults also have this peculiar idea that anyone who is not part of their political group is their enemy. The cultists consider there to be no reason to have any opinion other than the designated opinion of their cult. It's as though they see the world with blinders on, only capable of seeing what is directly in front of them.

    These cultists view any idea that is foreign to the ideology is evil and blasphemy. This is where political ideology becomes awfully similar to religious belief. At times, insulting the figurehead (almost always a politician who is running for election because people only care about politics during elections) is like denouncing a god during the dark ages. I want to expand on this point alone in a later article, but people defend politicians so much almost as though the politician is a god. They view this person as all righteous, and can never do anything wrong; when confronted with examples of the wrongdoings by the righteous, cultists are likely to use an array of common logical fallacies to defend the gods in their crusade. Of course, defending an opponent of the cultist's god is an act of worshiping the devil, and refusal to worship the cultist's god is just as bad as worshiping the devil ("a vote for 'X' is a vote for [the opponent of X]".)

    The Trials of Ambiguity parallel here is that the main reason for the State of Dactric combating against the Retlin Order is because they refuse to submit to the State. The State of Mayith has different motives, which will be revealed in the series' next installment, but still possess this cult-like mindset. A very direct parallel exists in the next installment with the Establishment of the Anti-Reason, a religion which forbids absolute uniformity in thought.

    Yes, it is possible to have the same opinion as another person, but it is another situation when most people have one of two sets of opinions with little, if any, variation between them. There are people who separate themselves from this binary, but they are not the common place. Some of these outliers are simply part of other political cults. You have the socialists/communists, libertarians, anarchists, etc. All of which have groups of people whom develop an ideological uniform which they believe to be standard for the rest of the group. Obviously this is not as much a problem for the smaller ideological groups, especially libertarians who can't seem to decide what they believe, due to their size and limited reach, but the problem is still there. Ultimately, the problem will persist in all groups regardless of the amount of individualism they embrace.

    I'm not saying it's wrong to call yourself a conservative/liberal/libertarian/socialist/ancom/ancap etc. (though I have my varying opinions on each of these groups), rather what I'm arguing is that people should reject the collectivist nature of group ideology. Instead, I am arguing that people should form their own ideas rather than allow their social media newsfeed to tell them what to think and that they should not let their political persuasions run their lives. Instead of acting as though your ideas are infallible, continue to interrogate your ideas and the ideas of others. This is mainly what I was trying to get across in ending of The Fall of Sector E38. The evil of Sector E38 is that they gave up who they are as individuals for the sake of being in the collective, all other hardships they faced where a result of that choice.