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Democracy Under Bacterial Attack!
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The Rajneeshee cult, having already moved from India to rural Oregon in the early 1980s, was denied a building permit to expand. The county opposed it. But as the Rajneeshees had dramatically increased the population of the small town in which they settled, they easily had the political majority for one of them to become mayor. Their leader explained — to the laughter of his followers captured on an audiorecording — that it was a “necessary evil” for one of them to go into the “gutter” of politics.
There is nothing surprising about a large commune having political interests and aspirations. One might argue that the cult members were entitled to vote and to run for office and that it was necessary for local government to adapt at least some regulations to meet the needs of its residents. But the hunger for power does not have a natural endpoint, and the problem here was the lengths to which some people went to gain power.
The cult next attempted to engineer a majority, not just in its own town, but across the whole county. It promised lodging to homeless people from all over the United States, hoping that these individuals — even if they were not true ideological devotees — would at least register to vote on behalf of the cult’s interests. The people arrived, but the county denied…
