Comment by throwanem
4 days ago
Even a marginal familiarity with the history of Scientology is an excellent curative for the idea that you can think yourself into superpowers, or that you should ever trust anyone who promises to teach you how.
The consequences of ignorance on this score are all drearily predictable to anyone with a modicum of both good sense and world knowledge, which is why they've come as such a surprise to Yudkowsky.
You can say all of this of drug-oriented seekers of superpowers, too. Trust the SSRI cult much?
It just seems to be a human condition that whenever anyone tries to find a way to improve themselves and others, there will always be other human beings who attempt to prevent that from occurring.
I don't think this is a cult thing - I think its a culture thing.
Humans have an innate desire to oppress others in their environment who might be making themselves more capable, abilities-wise - this isn't necessarily the exclusive domain of cults and religions, maybe just more evident in their activities since there's not much else going on, usually.
We see this in technology-dependent industries too, in far greater magnitudes of scale.
The irony is this: aren't you actually manifesting the very device that cults use to control others, as when you tell others what "specific others" should be avoided, lest one become infected with their dogma?
The roots of all authoritarianism seem to grow deep in the fertile soil of the desire to be 'free of the filth of others'.
The phrase you failed to find is "crab-bucket thinking," but the one you really should have paid attention to this morning is "take with food."