Many outsiders see Amway members as being cult like in nature. I also believe that many Amway groups are like cults. The only major difference I can see is that Amway members are free to quit and free to come and go. But there are many similarities to a cult following which I will outline.
Groups are often told not to associate with non members. If your friends and family do not like Amway or are not positive about Amway, they are to be shunned. Members are told not to put anything but positive into their minds, thus IBOs are told not to watch television or read newspapers. thus, depriving an IBO of basic information about their communities or their cities. It makes them apathetic. Most of the information or stimulation that an IBO receives is Amway propaganda and that other forms of information are seen as negative and should be avoided.IBOs are often advised or told to submit to their upline leaders. Just follow the trail already blazed by upline. Don't reinvent the wheel. Just copy or duplicate your upline. IBOs tend to dress alike, act alike and say the same things, but they are discouraged from speaking to crossline IBOs, which I find ridiculous for business associates. In a twist of irony, IBOs are encouraged to buy audios and/or attend functions where crossline diamonds are speaking.
Downlines are trained to edify the diamonds. Standing ovations, adoration and complete submission to these "great" leaders. IBOs are often told to "counsel" with these great leaders. A 50 year old successful married businessman would have to "submit" and listen to the single and 30 year old diamond, because the diamond has accomplished what everyone wants - to be a diamond. (Doesn't this sound like the funny farm?) Even in lesser ranked IBOs, your upline is your upline, oftentimes simply because of the fact that he or she signed up before you. Amazing isn't it?
Downlines are also constantly on the hunt for new cult members (recruiting). They go through all kinds of trials and tribulations to do so, even attending out of town seminars to learn this skill. The IBOs also channel significant amounts of money to upline leaders in the form of tools purchases, or in some cases, special functions run exclusively by their upline.
So are Amway groups such as BWW, N21, LTD or WWDB cults? I don't know, but I can say pretty confidently that they certainly exhibit traits that can be compared to a cult.
5 comments:
Amway is most definitely a cult, very much like the People's Temple in Guyana that was run by Jim Jones.
It's just too bad that all the freaks in Amway don't follow the Jim-Jones cult example and swallow Kool-Aid.
Like a classic cult, an Amway group may be very difficult to quit. Not life threatening like the sects that fled to the jungle. Not forced not to quit. But difficult to quit nevertheless.
The book Merchants of Deception (since withdrawn, I assume there has been since legal wrestling) gives a heartbreaking account of how friends were told to shun them due to them quitting. Knowing that such is the prospect, does not make it easy to quit. Even without the prospect of loosing friends, it is a difficult head shift to make, because many people will feel they've come so far (in terms of effort, time and money expended). Also one may have gotten the idea that things were leading nowhere, but quitting means accepting one has wasted all that time and money. There is a lot one can read about the sunk cost fallacy. It is a described phenomenon when people invest in something they hope will make money, and it's time to let go.
There are also a few other areas of concern:
- Referring in unfavourable terms to uninvolved outsiders.
- Told to ignore advice from friends and relatives who are not on board with the idea, and even to shut them out of one's life. Like the previous one, this is bound to create a very inward looking group.
- Having to accept upline's authority on life decisions, lifestyle. And for that matter business overheads that are not directly income generating. (if those are really required they can't keep on saying the startup costs are low).
- The attitude towards missing events
This and the previous point makes the hobby all consuming, so that the Amway group touches every aspect of life.
- Told not to accept advice from any outsider, including people whom one think give a relevant opinion, like accountants other people who run a different unrelated business.
I have run a small actual business for 10 years now, and meet others in the same boat from time to time. That is real business. But the things Amway groups do, like idea look down on people employed in corporations, to not hear out advice from outsiders, not look at the books to see how much income are being generated, to spend an inordinate amount of time and funds on conferences, training, books, and to have mentors who don't appreciate professional boundaries like what happens in Amway groups - all of that is completely foreign. It is not something I can even remotely relate to as things an actual business owner does.
I am not an expert on the exact proper definition of a cult, so I too don't really know when to call what this or that. But that there are many cultish very unhealthy things happening, that is very clear.
The Amway tendency to insist that an IBO must accept up-line authority when it comes to all major decisions and expenditures is purely financial in its motive.
Up-line wants down-line to spend the greatest possible part of resources on the Amway racket, and not on anything else. Buying a new car, or a house, or having a child, or going on vacation are all major commitments of both time and cash. They involve financial responsibilities that will be in place for years to come.
Naturally the up-line will discourage (or even forbid) such major financial steps, purely out of selfish concerns. Up-line fears that down-line will not be able to spend all that is required by the Amway "Plan," which requires a huge monthly and yearly commitment of cash.
For this simple reason, the advice given to down-line is poisoned at its source. It's not advice designed to help the down-line. It's advice designed to keep him financially tied to Amway.
This particular Amway habit is not necessarily cultic, since it can be explained as simple greed. But it is true that many cults do attempt to control the spending habits of their members, as a way to regiment them, or to make sure that they can pay their cash dues to the cult. This is especially true in the nightmare known as Scientology.
Thinking about what a cult is: Where your mind is being controlled and unconditional loyalty to someone above is expected. Amway AMO, no matter which is definetely a cult.
Amway was cultish even before the coming of the AMO subsystems. DeVos and Van Andel deliberately cultivated a highly propagandized, quasi-religious attitude among Amway members. You had to think the Amway way, speak the Amway way, dress the Amway way, and act the Amway way. It was highly regimented, and a great value was placed upon blind obedience. To me it felt like a combination of the Army and an evangelical tent meeting.
There's absolutely no room for individualists in Amway.
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