However, I don't seem to be able to get away from cults and cultish thinking. I see it all over the place. Not often as discrete and self-contained as the Rawat-worshiping palaver, but still, crazy ideas dearly held, out of reach of reason. People I know pretty well, affected by Qanon. 5g, Bill Gates, the Covid hoax, the cover-up by government that allows them to control us with lock-downs. And then I think a lot of the impetus behind Brexit was some mad nostalgia for a benevolent and enriching empire. Taking back control was a cracking theme (how is it I've lost control? No more than 90 days at a time in France, no more free health care, and worst perhaps, no more taking trees to my land in France - my tree nursery disconnected from my orchard).

I think a lot of cultish activity is about taking back control. Spinning some sort of narrative where you gain more control of your own fate. Where you become more significant.

In Tony Blair's time, there was talk of Brussels seeming remote from the people under its governance, and subsidiarity was proposed as a solution. Remember that word? I think it meant devolving power downwards as far as possible, localising decision making to an appropriate level - a street, a village, a town, county, region - to give control back to people as far as possible.

Well, no-one has used that word for a decade or more I bet.

We know reason won't work to persuade people into more rational thinking. I think I really left the cult when I didn't need to be in it any more. When I had built up enough of a life outside of it. I think people do need to feel in control, to be a significant part of society, to have more of a say in how things go than the opportunity to choose between two politicians every 4-5 years.

JihadWatch seems so yesterday. The Trump cult, the rise of the far right and the madness of Qanon seem likely to have more impact on us in the long run.