Absurd Cults

Absurd Cults

One of the more hilarious aspects of my situation has received virtually no attention. The university actually accused me of trying to start a cult. Yes, you read that right—I am (or was) an aspiring cult leader! True, this is not against university rules, so I couldn’t be formally charged with it; but it was thrown in there as evidence of my dangerous tendencies. I am actually surprised the media and philosophy profession did not latch onto this—isn’t it juicy enough? Why would I be accused of trying to form a cult? It all has to do with my work on the hand and human nature. I had remarked to the student that we could form a cult of the hand—as a joke. I even wrote a humorous statement going into the beliefs of such a cult. Of course, there is nothing wrong with cults as such: the OED defines “cult” as “a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object”, which pretty much covers all religions. My “cult” of the hand was not intended to be religious but scientific, but the point is that it was tongue-in-cheek. Evidently, the lurid connotations of the word “cult” were sufficient to alarm university administrators. A quick word from me would have cleared the matter up, but I never had that word—also pretty funny. I lost my job (partly) because of suspicion of forming a cult. Isn’t that hilarious? Isn’t it very Monty Python? There could be a Life of Colin like the Life of Brian in which a philosophy professor loses his job (or is crucified) because he had the idea of jokingly forming a cult. You have to laugh.