An appeal to kairos uses timing to gain an advantage in influencing the minds of others. This appeal is an especially powerful tool when used by cult leaders to influence and control the minds of their followers. In The Sacrament, followers are tempted to join because they are at desperate times in their life, dealing with afflictions such as drug addiction or abuse. Therefore, in the eyes of the commune’s leader, Father, they are perfect - easily persuadable targets with low spirits that provided the perfect opportunity for him to “save them” with promises of hope and salvation through membership into the commune.In the same way, many other cult leaders use appeals to kairos in order to attract and influence their followers. For example, the Children of God cult utilized the “hippie” spirit of the 1960s and early 1970s to draw people into joining their commune. As noted by Joaquin Phoenix, people at the time were eager to do something different and escape the materialistic mindset of the time. Therefore, by taking advantage of this time’s mindset, cults such as the Children of God were able to persuade people into joining by leading them to believe that they offered an answer to the liberated lifestyle that they were searching for. By playing upon the opportunities presented by timing, these cult groups were able to use appeals to kairos as a chief method of garnering followers.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Kairos of The Sacrament
An appeal to kairos uses timing to gain an advantage in influencing the minds of others. This appeal is an especially powerful tool when used by cult leaders to influence and control the minds of their followers. In The Sacrament, followers are tempted to join because they are at desperate times in their life, dealing with afflictions such as drug addiction or abuse. Therefore, in the eyes of the commune’s leader, Father, they are perfect - easily persuadable targets with low spirits that provided the perfect opportunity for him to “save them” with promises of hope and salvation through membership into the commune.In the same way, many other cult leaders use appeals to kairos in order to attract and influence their followers. For example, the Children of God cult utilized the “hippie” spirit of the 1960s and early 1970s to draw people into joining their commune. As noted by Joaquin Phoenix, people at the time were eager to do something different and escape the materialistic mindset of the time. Therefore, by taking advantage of this time’s mindset, cults such as the Children of God were able to persuade people into joining by leading them to believe that they offered an answer to the liberated lifestyle that they were searching for. By playing upon the opportunities presented by timing, these cult groups were able to use appeals to kairos as a chief method of garnering followers.
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It's scary that there are people who manipulate others during desperate times in their life.This insidious use of kairos shows the power that cult leaders have.
ReplyDelete.,I like how you defined Kairos by both its relevance to the time period and its relevance to the respective individuals taken in by the cults. You refer to when each individual joins a cult as living at the lowest, most desperate time of their life.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really good job with this post. I think this perfectly shows how the rhetoric devices can be used to manipulate people into doing bad things. The power of argument can lead to both great and horrible things.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase, "timing is everything" is very important when analyzing the kairos in a given text. The 60s was a time of exploration and liberation, and many jumped on that bandwagon to feel relevant. It is terrifying to think of how the cults manipulated people by making them feel important and appealing to their logos and pathos
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