Hi PI, all-- You wrote:
The pressure to form cults comes from below as much as it comes from above. Many leaders don't even want a cult following and have to fight against it. I know from my performing days that there were - unsolicited and discouraged by me - starry-eyed people sitting cross legged on the floor at the edge of the stage immersing themselves in something or the other with these expectant and glazed looks on their faces. They presumed some sort of intimacy with the people in the band, as though there were some shared inside knowledge, and often violated the boundaries trying to make contact with us or hunt us down.
I was not any sort of big celebrity and yet this happened.
This is kind of funny, in a rueful way. I, too, am a performer, although very far from an accomplished one. Normally, I play drums, but at one point, I was in a band and I wrote a few songs, so when we played out, I'd come up to the front of the stage, grab my crappy, no-name, broke-ass, couldn't-stay-in-tune guitar, and croak out my discordant lyrics about getting old (called "The Love Song of Jane Prufrock"--I couldn't even come up with my own ideas!), shopping for shoes, Courtney Love, and Chimayo, New Mexico (four of the ones I played most often). I was really, really bad. Not being falsely humble--I was actually awful. My bandmates were awfully sweet to indulge me, I can say that much.
Yet, after one show, a young woman approached me and said (literally), "Can I touch the hem of your garment? You were so great! I loved your songs!" I was flattered and flustered to say the least. She hung around, peppering me with questions, introducing me to her boyfriend (who look mortified), and sort of just *hovering* in a disconcerting way.
Not only was I not famous, I wasn't even *good* and yet I had a follower. So I can't even imagine what it must have been like for you, most likely a talented musician, much less for an actual celebrity....
I can't even imagine what it must be like for more famous people. I can tell you that for me it was a big pain in the ass - the cult-like followers gave me the creeps.
Oh, okay. I guess I can *imagine* it, then! BTW, The Flight of the Conchords, an HBO series that recently wrapped up its first series, has a *great* obsessed fan character.
But that does tell us that there is a huge army of people out there ready and eager to go into some sort of trance-like state and follow someone mindlessly, desperate to belong to something, to believe in something, to totally immerse themselves in something.
Yeah, but, see, here's the thing: I definitely wasn't in that army. I was always so contemptuous of that kind of behavior, of mindless following. That's why it seems like I should say... if it could happen to me, it could happen to you (not you in particular, PI--just anyone among us).