The Art of Making Sh!t Up: Using the Principles of Improv to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse by Laviolette Norm;Melley Bob;

Author:Laviolette, Norm;Melley, Bob; [Laviolette, Norm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119558217
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The Cult Factor

In general, people follow passion and energy, not ideas. Don't believe me? Then just take a look at cults. Cults are populated by devoted followers who enthusiastically and staunchly believe in and defend the theories and principles that the cult preaches. They are typically led by a single charismatic leader who, through seemingly sheer animal magnetism, entrances a community of followers to such a degree that the leader's words and beliefs are accepted as gospel.

Now, here is the thing. More often than not those ideas are batshit crazy. From believing aliens are going to come down and take them away on a certain date, or that by the force of group thought people can make themselves invisible, to far more dangerous and sinister ideas, the concepts that cults often follow seem absolutely ludicrous to someone from the outside looking in. So why do perfectly reasonable and intelligent people end up falling under the spell of these shamans?

It ain't the Kool‐Aid. It is the fact that humans respond to and follow energy and passion. Humans are drawn to other humans who create energy and stimulate emotions. We are tribal creatures and are genetically programmed to come together in groups for protection. Most other animals were faster and stronger and thicker‐skinned than our ancient selves, so that meant that they could kill us far more easily than we could kill them.

The only thing we had going for us was our abnormally big brain and our ability to procreate and live together in relatively larger numbers. Our brains allowed us to devise more clever ways to both kill the other animals as well as not get killed by them. The fact that we lived in larger groups gave us strength in numbers and also allowed for the tribe to survive, even if a couple of us got picked off by the occasional lion or grizzly bear.

The tribal members, believing death was around every corner, and it was, needed someone to say, “Hey, man, we got this.” If the leader said it loud enough and with enough passion, the rest of the tribe would be like “Hey, maybe we do got this,” and they would follow the leader until he got himself killed or she got too many other people killed. Afterwards they would all come together and complain about what an idiot the leader had been.

The cycle would repeat itself again and again all the way up until modern times where we have seen a split in the Homo sapien line where a new species, Homo entrepreneurus, identified by the curious trait of believing they can do anything and the ability to somehow get others to believe so, as well.

I know what a bunch of you are thinking right now. Charisma ain't my jam. I am never going to be able to get all Chris Farley “Man who lives in a van down by the river” (younger people, please do yourself a favor and look this up on YouTube) for anyone or anything.

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