Cult and Community

Michu's comments in class on cults brought to mind this excellent and sad feature piece I read yesterday on Lyndon LaRouche, the recent suicide of his longtime printer and confidant, and the subsequent collapse of LaRouche's strange media empire. The point is raised repeatedly in the article that while LaRouche was an early-adopter of computer technologies (he owned the first computer-run printing press in New York), he was suspicious of the Internet - and that ultimately his unwillingness to move online (despite his longtime proto-bloggy rantings) led to the fracturing and dissolution of his movement and businesses. An excellent view of a bizarre little community of American politics.