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In 1999, a seemingly incongruous collection of protestors converged in Seattle to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Union leaders, environmentalists dressed as endangered turtles, mainstream Christian clergy, violence-advocating anarchists, gay and lesbian activists, and many other diverse groups came together to protest what they saw as the unfair power of a nondemocratic elite. But how did such strange bedfellows come together? And can their unity continue? In 1972-another period of social upheaval-sociologist Colin Campbell posited a 'cultic milieu': An underground region where true seekers test hidden, forgotten, and forbidden knowledge. Ideas and allegiances within the milieu change as individuals move between loosely organized groups, but the larger milieu persists in opposition to the dominant culture. Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow find Campbell's theory especially useful in coming to grips with the varied oppositional groups of today. While the issues differ, current subcultures often behave in similar ways to deviant groups of the past. The Cultic Milieu brings together scholars looking at racial, religious and environmental oppositional groups as well as looking at the watchdog groups that oppose these groups in turn. While providing fascinating information on their own subjects, each essay contributes to a larger understanding of our present-day cultic milieu. For classes in the social sciences or religious studies, The Cultic Milieu offers a novel way to look at the interactions and ideas of those who fight against the powerful in our global age.
List of contents
1 Introduction
2 The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization
3 Diggers, Wolfs, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Global Bricolage and the Question of Violence within the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism
4 The Historical Communal Roots of Ultraconservative Groups: Earlier American Communes That Have Shaped Today's Far Right
5 Neo-Shamanism, Psychic Phenomena, and Media Trickery: Cultic Differences in Hungary
6 The Gothic Milieu
7 Black and White Unite in Fight? On the Interaction Between Black and White Radical Racialists
8 The Idea of Purity: The Swedish Racist Counterculture, Animal Rights, and Environmental Protection
9 The Postwar Paths of Occult National Socialism: From Rockwell and Mandole to Manson
10 Thriving in a Cultic Milieu: The World Union of National Socialists, 1962-1992
11 The Modern Anti-Cult Movement in Historical Perspective
12 "Who Watches the Watchman?" Another Side to the Watchdog Groups
About the author
Edited by Jeffrey S. Kaplan and Heléne Lööw - Contributions by Laird Wilcox; Colin H. Campbell; Bron Taylor; Timothy Miller; Laszlo Kurti; Massimo Introvigne; Mattias Gardell; Frederick J. Simonelli and J Gordon Melton
