We have already identified some of the key features of harmful conformity groups (HCGs): a domineering leader, a superficial commitment to ideas, and extreme pressure to conform. There are however other features that need to be identified, as well as additional understanding of those already mentioned.
Nature of the Leader
The leader or leaders of these groups come in many different forms. Sometimes the leader’s appearance or charisma is such that you can see how people would be attracted to or drawn in by them. Other times the leader is rather ordinary, or even downright off-putting, and their appeal comes from whatever ideology the group is espousing at the time. At other times, the unusualness or transgressiveness of the leaders’ behavior and words seems revelatory and revolutionary, especially to those who feel disenfranchised or ignored by conventional systems or culture, and people are attracted to that.
These leaders can be old or young, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, and come from any gender identity or sexual orientation and all races and cultures. Sometimes their approach and their control is very calculated and methodical, while others are largely improvising. Some set out to exercise control over other people, while others seduce themselves into it over time.
The one thing that is consistent across them all is their narcissism: a utterly self-centered worldview and an absolute conviction that what they are doing is unquestionably correct. These leaders would sooner die than accept any level of contradiction. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their lives will end in violence or suicide, but it does mean that they will go down to their graves unchanged. Controlling the group is the only thing that matters to them.
The leader or leaders of a HCG are the lynchpin holding the organization together. When they die, or are in some way discredited, the organization collapses and ceases to exist.
Nature of the Conformity
HCGs do not maintain their control over their members through the threat of force. Rather they maintain control through the influence of the leaders, the peer/cultural pressure of the other members, misinformation, and isolation: in other words, through psychological manipulation.
Every organization or group, healthy or unhealthy, considers some behaviors correct and others incorrect, and have varying degrees of tolerance for gray areas and outright violations. There is nothing inherently unusual, suspicious, or inappropriate about this. But in HCGs, deviation is treated extremely harshly. The repercussions are typically nonviolent but no less mentally and emotionally damaging. Members are often forced to engage in humiliating rituals, excruciating disclosures, or other debasing and depersonalizing acts. The rules of behavior that members are expected to follow in HCGs are extremely exacting and often deeply trivial, such as mandating a particular hairstyle or musical preference. In time, the HCG will try to dictate every aspect of the members’ lives: what jobs they can work, how they can spend their money, who they can associate with, what to eat or drink, etc. They may seek to obtain legal control of the person by having them sign over power of attorney, advanced medical directives, and future inheritances.
HCGs all engage in isolating their members from others. This isolation is not always physical - a HCG need not have a compound or a dormitory setup. The isolation can sometimes take the form of urging members to sever lines of communication with family members or other outsiders. It can also take the form of the group denying the legitimacy of any sources of information besides themselves. HCGs can form and recruit on the internet using this technique. A group that rejects certain sources as inappropriate or incorrect is not doing anything wrong, but a group that designates certain sources as evil and castigates its members for consuming them may be a HCG.
In a broader sense, HCGs seek to break down and remove all inhibitions that the members have. This is not the same thing as encouraging one to step outside their comfort zone or try new things or even to be open to alternate moral standards. HCGs want to subvert the entirety of their members’ thoughts, actions, means, and purposes to the desires of the leaders. So they actively work to convince members to discard all personal compunctions or instincts and follow the leaders unquestioningly.
Facade of Legitimacy
HCGs are parasitic. They operate under a facade of legitimacy, and demand the same recognition and treatment as healthy groups. They may actively flaunt the status quo and advertise themselves as revolutionary, but in the end they work within the parameters of the law and society - or rather do everything they can to present themselves as doing so. Behind the scenes they are committing abuses, crimes, and acts of violence, which is what makes them harmful. But they are able to maintain to themselves and often to others that they are legitimate: quirky, odd, maybe challenging, but ultimately harmless.
Role of Violence
HCGs do not use violence to maintain internal control. Violence towards non-members can happen at any time, and indeed some groups undertake such violence from the very beginning. But violence against members by other members is typically a sign that the group is collapsing. That doesn’t mean the violence won’t be devastating, but it can’t be maintained. HCGs operate on the fiction of being committed to an ideology and having legitimate goals, and in-house violence undermines that to the point that the fiction can no longer be rationalized in the minds of the members.
HCGs do frequently engage in violence against outsiders, and particularly against former members. But the violence is not systematic, it is more spontaneous. That doesn’t mean the violence isn’t premeditated, but it is sporadic and often unpredictable. It is also usually hidden, in order to maintain the afore-mentioned fictions.
Formation
HCGs form in a variety of ways. Some are formed by leaders who set out to exercise control over others - creating a group under their thrall was always the plan, and they gather new followers wherever they find them. Other times a healthy or harmless group can be hijacked by a new leader. In rare cases, a group and its leader are healthy at first, but as time goes on the leader and the group become more oppressive, radical, and ultimately harmful.
Summary
- Domineering, obsessive, narcissistic leadership
- Superficial commitment to ideas
- Extreme pressure to conform enforced through peer pressure and mental manipulation rather than force
- Isolation of members and extreme vilification of non-members
- Taking complete control of the members’ lives and willpower
- Parasitic, operates under a facade of legitimacy