I recently asked “Where have all the cultists gone?” – that is, why do we no longer have cult panics like we have had so frequently throughout US history, but so floridly and sensationally in the 1970s and 1980s. I suggested that small controversial groups might be less likely to be formed and grow in our more secular society, but let me offer two alternative explanations, or rather to other forces that might be at work over and above that.
I begin with the idea of pre-emption. Imagine a small group c.1970, under a charismatic leader whose followers regard him as near-divine, and who can almost literally get away with murder (and sometimes even murder). That especially means free sexual relationships with women of the group, and often with younger girls, even children. That was a common enough pattern at the time. Once that behavior started, it could become institutionalized, and could run for years before facing any official intervention.
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