Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 22
mainstream society. If all the institutions of the state are indeed as nefarious as is depicted,
then it also follows that elitist and high activity forms of organization are necessary for
salvation: nothing less than the future of humanity is at stake.
The End is Nigh...
The prospect of imminent catastrophe is a hard-to-beat, ultimate justification for zealous
proselytizing, commitment, and sacrifice in support of The Cause. It is therefore no surprise
that a strident belief in Armageddon, in one form or another, is common to all manner of
cults. In this case, Identity believers insist that a final conflict between the Aryan forces of
goodness and the Satanically inspired forces of darkness is imminent. The resultant sense of
urgency is a handy weapon in the struggle to enforce conformity, veneration of the idealized
leader, and intense levels of activity. Debate, doubt, and dissent are seen as luxuries for
more tranquil times than these. In this respect, Identity adherents excel even the sooth-
saying prophets of Marxism. Dan Gayman, of the Church of Israel, put it like this:
The fall of the American government is imminent. We are living already in
the preparatory throes of a national and world wide revolution ...as the
agents of Satan who head their world wide conspiracy of anti-Christ, plot and
plan the total demise of Christian civilization and of the white race ...A blood
bath will take place upon the soil of this great nation, that will end only in
victory for Christ or Satan. We of the Nordic race who believe in Jesus Christ
are determined that this nation will remain ours. (Cited by Barkun, 1994,
p.110)
Such expectations lend a frantic urgency to the hunt for out-groups who can be blamed for
every calamity that besets the modern world. Unemployment, poverty in the rural mid-
West, declining moral standards, and the reluctance of many to teach so-called creationist
science in schools are all taken as evidence of the Jewish conspiracy against Christian and
American values. As one publication puts it:
Jews are evil, anti-Christian, un-Christian, and in control of most of the
organized evil of the world, such as prostitution, international slavery,
international money-changing, profiteering on wars, racketeering in labor,
corruption in politics, modernism in religion, atheism in the school system,
promotion of lewd propaganda through theaters and picture shows etc.
(Cited by Bushart et al., 1998, p.143).
At the core of the Identity belief system lies the notion of imminent racial obliteration.
Identity believers want to relocate all minorities to about 10% of the US landmass, and
reserve the rest for white Christians. These must also be not gay, left wing, feminist, pro-
abortion, or multi-cultural in outlook. Difference, the spice of life, will give way to bland
uniformity. The landscape for all seasons is white, white, and more white. Dissent must bow
its head in submissive conformity.
The threat of violence is never far below the surface. It further promotes a sense of
imminent peril, and hence reinforces the members‘ allegiance to the primary in-group.
Ezekiel, a researcher, attended an Aryan National Congress in Northern Idaho, and has
produced a chilling account of the proceedings. Aryan Nations is one of the best-known
organizations on the far right, and its leaders have been heavily influenced by Identity
theology. Here is one speaker and the response of his audience (Ezekiel, 1995, p.42):
We must get rid of the Federal Reserve System and of the income tax. We
must repudiate the national debt. We must tell the people at the top: ―There
will be treason trials! You will be strung from the trees!”‟

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 23
The room explodes in loud applause. Cries of ―Hail Victory!” Cries of “White
Power!”‟
Such gatherings display all the colors of a cult in full bloom. The group dynamics are
calculated to induce maximum conformity. Thus, the Congress observed by Ezekiel was held
at a compound in Hayden Lake, away from any outside scrutiny or the possibility of
corrective influence from anyone unimpressed by supremacist theology. A sign near the
entrance read ―Aryans Only,‖ setting a tone of exclusivity from the beginning. All new
arrivals had their credentials checked by guards posted at the entrance. The message was:
this is a gathering only for the initiated, the trusted, the select few. Nazi music played
throughout the weekend, broadcast from loudspeakers located in a convenient watchtower.
Participants were afforded no escape from an incessant message of hate. Nazi flags were
prominently displayed, while all arrivals found themselves quickly habituated to the frequent
exchange of Nazi salutes. Research has generally found that people adopt the norms, dress
codes, linguistic forms, and behaviors of groups to which they commit with astonishing ease
(Brown, 2000). Meanwhile, an endless succession of speakers pounded away at the same
message: the Jewish threat is moving towards conclusion blacks are gaining power
everywhere the US Government is in the pay of the conspiracy. The refrain is relentless:
―White Power! White Power! White Power!‖ For those present, the return trip to reality
must be traumatic.
Self-righteousness is deepened by yet another paradox. On the one hand, the sufferings of
the stigmatised out-groups are described as non-existent. On the other hand, the members
of such groups are themselves blamed for any problems that are reluctantly acknowledged
to exist.
Again, this problem extends beyond those who belong to hate groups. It is a fundamental
component of a prejudiced mindset. For example, two researchers investigated white
stereotypes of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans (Bobo &
Kluegel, 1991). They found that whites needed to ―explain‖ the disadvantaged condition of
the minority being observedmore precisely, to find explanations which justified it. Many
alternative explanations for black disadvantage are available (for example, that the
disadvantage is primarily the product of white prejudice and discrimination). However, to
accept this would require self-criticism, and criticism might in turn be extended to social
institutions with which many whites identify more closely than do members of minority
groups. It was found that whites tended to assume a casual connection between the
stereotypical traits ascribed to the minority groups and their social situation: that is, it was
their own fault. In short, it was much more convenient to assume that their position of
social disadvantage reflected their naturally inferior position than discrimination practised by
the white society. We would describe this as a perspective of ―illusory causality.‖ Clearly,
the tendency to blame those at the receiving end of bias for its effects is particularly
pronounced among members of extreme hate groups. The effect is to promote in-group
favoritism (i.e., a belief in the innate superiority of the group to which one belongs),
combined with out-group stigmatisation (i.e., a belief in the innate inferiority of the
designated out-groups). It would appear that such psychological dynamics are a necessary
ingredient for the development of cultic organizations, driven as they are by an exclusive
sense of mission that separates their followers from all other groups in society. Such
separation is most easily accomplished if the members can be convinced that they are both
different from and superior to other groups with whom they come in contact.
The apocalyptic ideas that go with this mindset were greatly strengthened in the post-war
period by the existence of the Soviet Union. One Identity writer, Bertrand Comparet,
described the imminent Final Days (and they are always depicted as imminentdecade
after decade) in the following terms: