Word: cults
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Sure, some residents of the standstill town of Winterthur (pop. 88,000) in the German-speaking part of Switzerland had long felt that the place could use a little excitement. But a pop religious cult gone bananas, a running feud between town and saffron gown, allegations of planted bombs in rosebushes and naked-altar ceremonies in postcard-pretty woods? This was more than anybody had bargained...
...seems that back in the cult-happy '60s, a wealthy local matron fell under the swami's spell in India and invited him to Switzerland. Her generosity helped launch the Divine Light Center in a cluster of 15 houses, which the swami painted an offensive bright blue. Worshipful disciples pestered the neighborhood with nonstop proselytizing. From 4 in the morning on, loudspeakers bellowing holy chants echoed through the district. The stolid burghers finally lost patience and in 1975 won an official order to have the swami expelled from the country...
...Yankelovich, Skelly & White, who conducted readership surveys in twelve cities, and will summarize her findings to newspaper editors at the A.S.N.E.'s annual convention in New York City this week. Clark thinks readers wanted to know not just the grisly facts and exact body counts of the Jonestown cult death in Guyana but also how the reporter felt, so they could "share his experience." Such an attitude violates all the classic instruction of crabby editors to young cub reporters not to "get in front of the story...
BASEBALL INTRINSICALLY rejects the cult of personality, the People magazine approach to life. Sure, ballplayers have personalities; but they develop personalities on the field as well--DiMaggio's kingly elegance, Ryne Duren's fastball-to-the-loge weirdness. Thurman Munson's combative surliness--and, in the end, these personalities are more engaging. For the most part, you get these personalities in The Yankees, personalities on grass and clay, not carpeting. Your team, maybe, Remember Ross Moschito...
...final crash, the mob violence unleashed on a cult hero hints at others to be remembered. Maybe the Guru Maharah Ji's rock band will fail. Maybe Werner Erhard will marry Linda Renstadt. And maybe, thinking back on absent friends, "Dad" could have blown it. Jonestown could have gone the other...