Chapter 4

Something struck me while reading the beginning part of chapter four about the UFO cult. Actually it was one word: Proselytizing. I had never seen the word and i looked it up. Basically it is the practice of conversion, or trying to convert people to an ideology. The more i thought about it, it occurred to me that almost all fundmental ideological movements share this one commonality. From evangelical christians to fundamentalist muslims to UFO cults, it seems that prosyletizing is being utilized as a form of propoganda. Not only does it promote the image of the group to those outside ("Look at all these people joinin! They cant all be wrong!"), but it also goes a long way in keeping the already converted steadfast in their beleifs. There must be some sort of rationalizing effect in being able to bring a new person in to an group with such preposterous beleifs. I can imagine it also goes a long way in reinforcing the notion that the person doing the converting is "on the right track" or "spreading the good word". But then again there must be a certain type of person that is more apt to proselytize as well as a certain type of person that wants to per proselytized.