NIXVM and the Loss of Agency
I'm watching the NXVIM documentary and it is incredibly creepy.
The sex-cult stuff is horrifying, obviously. That's what everyone focuses on. But there's another layer underneath that touched many, many more people.
The way they attracted people was the promise of perfection.
Perfection wasn't an unrealistic goal that negatively affected the lives of people who believed in it. No, it was absolutely attainable, and all you needed was the correct process.
It was all mathematical, and scientific (Narrator: it was not.).
What it promised, at its core, was greater control over your life, and greater agency.
That seems like something lots of people want, including me. And since they market this greater control and agency as part of a measurable process, it can feel like it's actually happening. It actually increases your self-esteem, at first.
What's actually happening, though, is much more insidious.
Because the process is "mathematical" and "scientific," you have to follow the process. If you don't follow the process, you'll fail.
So "agency" gets replaced with "obedience." You can't get better, more perfect, unless you're obedient. And since your self esteem becomes more and more reliant on this process, your self esteem is entirely dependent on obedience.
This is a common pattern in abusive relationships, too.
One person methodically removes another's friends from their circle until that person is entirely dependent on the abuser for their social interactions and esteem. If they're not obedient, they're emotionally punished.
Watching this documentary is important, if only to see how incredibly easy it is to be manipulated when you're put into a certain environment. This cult sucked in some very successful people.
As for my own vulnerability, as an old, scruffy curmudgeon, I am post-improvement. It's a natural immunity.
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