Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Logos in "The Sacrament" (2013)

The Sacrament trailer, our second text, begins with a fact flashed on the screen: "In 2013, reporters from Vice Media traveled to a secret religious community known as 'Eden Parish.'" Right off the bat, there is evidence that this description of Eden Parish is logistical because it was seen by real reporters.

Logos is a large part of how people become involved with cults in the first place and is depicted by the actors throughout the text. Eden Parish was a religious cult run by a pseudo-Christian cult leader Jim Jones. In order to draw in his victims, he would make joining seem like common sense - like Christianity was what brought them together. In order to get his followers behind him, not only did he go by the name of "Father," but he would say phrases such as "this is the last sacrament." By using the Bible, Jim Jones managed to convince his followers that what he was doing was logical and right. However, as seen in the trailer, this type of logic only worked on those who are truly susceptible to it. Upon the arrival of the reporters, many families showed signs of wanting to leave Eden Parish. While Jim Jones' use of logos appeared to work, many people were simply too afraid to try and leave. In the end, his logistical approach of using fear and conformity is what created this cult.

5 comments:

  1. I find the logos behind cults very interesting. This apparent use of "logic" by cult leaders to lure people in is manipulation. The cult leaders prey on people with very strong beliefs and instill fear within them so that they will stay.

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  2. I find it interesting and ironic that cult leaders use logic to lure people in. Logic is the last thing I would think of when trying to understand cults and serial killers. However, it is easy to use logical fallacies to make certain things seem logical and that can have a very strong impact on people.

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  3. The logos involved in many cults is often logic that is twisted for the benefit of the cult's leaders. It also makes sense that many cults base their ideas around an already established religion, allowing them to twist the unproved logic, which is easier than trying to falsify proven facts.

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  4. I think you made some great points in this post. After watching the trailer it is clear to see that Jim Jones gets people to think it is the logical decision to stay with his cult, when it is the exact opposite.

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  5. I would say that it is not only logos that it is used to get people to join cults. Yeah, cult leaders tend to distort the logic of its members for certain reasons which would be related to logic. But I feel like the fact that the information given to them will often make them hate other people like the KKK or hate a specific behavior can be related to ethos.

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