The Beginning of Cultural Reintegration

The Beginning of Cultural Reintegration
As is often the case, the leading edge of a cultural transition can be highly deviant. The cultic movement of the 1969s an 1970s emerged as early signs of reintegration around spiritual commitment.

They benefited from the fact that their newly minted religious norms could generate relief form the anomie of the counter culture.

Members of the group such as Moonies, the Hare Krishnas and for their elders – Scientology reflected the aberrant consequences of a need to find definition, clarity and strong and binding ties, which had been lost over the preceding decades.

Intensity of commitment was based on deification of dubious leaders who laid claim to people’s material assets, to their option to live as they chose and even to their choice of mate; this was a radical response to the loss of family ties and traditional values.

These communities believe, or ad hoc families, constituted by serving ties with the members’ families of origin, gave expression to the need to feel a sense of rootedness.

This initial radical response was soon superseded by the search for adoption more consonant with traditional religious culture.

Fundamentalist belief offered both social stability and a relationship with a religious format that many of the maturing baby boomers’ parents would have understood.
The Beginning of Cultural Reintegration