When you read about cults centuries or even thousands of years back, it refers to a small, unpopular religion. When you mention cults today, you think of a small, unpopular religion who's leader is quite possibly a psychopath or just plain vain. It would be interesting to do some research and see how this developed. I'd look it up myself, by National Novel Writing Month is taking up a ton of my time.
When you read about "cults" thousands of years ago, you hear about widespread and very popular cults developing seemingly without control. Look into the cult of the saints in late antiquity...
But culture itself is theoretically a professor's demand on humanity to conform to the moral duties of the age.
Reality is ageless and there lies the rub. Man requires of himself things for which nature has not endowed him. Cultured man is nothing less than a captive in an fascist breeding program. Civilization as we know it is a pathogenic liar, promising salvation while delivering disease.
Cultures are bound by social taboo. Hindus don't eat cows, however there is nothing intrinsically wrong with eating cows. The culture gives supernatural qualities to some aspect of nature, some are revered and some are despised. The whole effort is simply to distinguish us from them. In the first place to inspire loyalty in the second to foster mistrust. In this way a spell is cast upon the relations of men. The word tradition means to give away or betray. We are betrayed in our heritage by the voodoo hex of taboo.
