The Ethical Collapse of Aum Shinrikyo ALEX BURNS

The Ethical Collapse of Aum Shinrikyo ALEX BURNS (ALEXANDER. BURNS@MONASH. EDU) SPS SYMPOSIUM, 24 TH OCTOBER 2018 PHD CANDIDATE, SCHOOL OF POLITICS & SOCIAL INQUIRY, MONASH UNIVERSITY

Strategic Culture Defined: Jack Snyder Formulated in 1977 by Jack Snyder for a RAND monograph on Ford and Carter administration détente and the Soviet Union “Individuals are socialized into a distinctly Soviet mode of thinking. . . a set of general beliefs, attitudes and behavioral patterns. . . that places them on the level of “culture” rather than mere “policy”. . . ” [emphasis added] (Snyder 1977: v) “Culture is perpetuated not only by individuals but also by organizations. ” (Snyder 1977: 9). “Strategic subculture: . . . a subsection of the broader strategic community. . . Reasonably distinct beliefs and attitudes. ” (Snyder 1977: 10).

Aum Shinrikyo • Founded in 1984 as a small yoga group • Founder: Shoko Asahara (Chizuo Matsumoto) • Developed a synthesis of religious beliefs • Hindu deity worship (Shiva) • Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayana (esoteric practices) • Evangelical Christianity (End Times apocalypse) • Occult milieu (Nostradamus) • Innovation (Perfect Salvation Initiation • 20 th March 1995: sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway • 13 people killed • 6000 people injured • Long-term psycho-social effects in Japanese society • Transformed from religious cult to religiously motivated terrorist organisation

Aum’s Pathway to Violence Aum’s goal of recruiting 30, 000 renunciates (very ambitious, led to Korea and Russia members) Early, optimistic period became more pessimistic (Ian Reader, 2000): parallels to Bhagwan Rajneesh (Netflix 2018 documentary Wild, Wild Country) Failed ‘populism’ of Asahara as candidate in 1990 -91 political campaign for the Japanese Diet Asahara’s interest in conspiracy theories (priming) Chemical and Biological Weapons experimentation Pathway to violence: Matsumoto (June 1994) and Tokyo (March 1995) when other options were exhausted

Macrofoundations: Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ • Economic bubble in 1980 s • Aum’s early goal: recruit 30, 000 renunciates • Shambhala Plan: global, utopian spiritual community • Aum viewed as a safe haven • Deflationary stagnation • Debt austerity • Psycho-social stressors: background of renunciates (noted in Haruki Marukami’s Underground interviews) • Aum became a psychic prison

Mesofoundations: Indoctrinability • Susceptibility or vulnerability to coercion, manipulation, or persusasion • Indoctrination into a particular political, religious, or philosophical belief system • Deals with the belief adoption process of a worldview or values • Explains Robert Jay Lifton’s observation (2000) of ‘cloning the guru’ practice in Aum • Anthony Stevens & John Price’s evolutionary psychiatry analysis of cultic groups (2000) • Marco Del Giudice’s research in evolutionary psychiatry (2018) may update Lifton’s insights • Neo-Darwinian competition for members between different Japanese new religions: dominancesubmission, rank-ordered groups

Microfoundations: Rent-Seeking and Wealth Extraction • Renunciate were a low-cost labour pool • Worked in construction, anime production, publishing (infrastructure, media capabilities) • Forerunner of anthropologist David Graeber’s recent study Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018) • Teacher-Student relationship in Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayana (Chogyam Trungpa) • Different experiences in Haruki Murakami’s Underground (2001) about “the place that was promised” • Aum as rent-seeking and wealth extraction entity for the primary benefit of senior leadership (elite model) • Aum in the context of Japanese communitarian capitalism and Western neoliberal capitalism

Integration: Ethical Collapse Elite Deviance model for senior leadership (preferential access to resources, own use, subjugation of renunciate followers) Asahara was not part of a recognised lineage transmission of Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayana teachings (Kalacakra Tantra) ‘Faked’ media and public relations (1985 Twilight Zone levitation photo of Asahara) Asset donation or seizure from renunciate followers (angered parent groups) Use of Japanese tax laws for new religions (cf. Church of Scientology in the United States and their battle with the Internal Revenue Service) Parallels: Enron (Jeff Skilling), Theranos (Elizabeth Holmes), Bernie Madoff’s $US 65 billion fraud, Galleon hedge fund (Raj Rajaratnam), white collar crime

Case Study Lessons • Aum Shinrikyo transformed from a guru-led religious cult to a religiously motivated terrorist organisation • Political economy (macrofoundations) are important to understand the structural forces and the socioeconomic context • Indoctrinability can help to understand other political, religious, and philosophical groups • Broader generalisability beyond terrorism studies • Japanese Government execution of Asahara and other Aum members (6 th and 26 th July 2018)

Discussion