ABSTRACT
Sociologists Dick Anthony and Thomas Robbins describe the Patriot movement and its millenar-ian relatives as "exemplary dualist movements": those that appeal to people with an extreme black-and-white, dualist worldview. This worldview is a direct product of the current larger social malaise, namely, alienation from a "sense of belonging" to modern society. For instance, the reports that came leaking out of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Crystal City, Virginia made the confluence almost official: It was like a right-wing version of a Workers World rally, with one crucial difference. Workers World is a fringe group with no political power. CPAC is explicitly endorsed by people running the country. Fundamentalist Christianity is among the most clear-cut expressions of a Manichean dualism in American society. Its world is divided into good and evil, black and white. In turn, this kind of dualism signals a propensity toward authoritarianism, or what Erik Erikson called totalism: the eager embrace of a totalitarian society.
