Compaction cycles are the primary method that groups of Narrativists utilize to release the cognitive dissonance caused by conflicts between observable reality their irrational worldview (or "Inner Narrative"), and these cycles typically take the form of the group expelling its least radicalized members- generally at the direction/cheerleading of the most radicalized members of the group. However under certain social circumstances this behavior pattern has two alternative manifestations; "Shunning cycles" and "Violence cycles".
Shunning cycles: This variant of the compaction cycle occurs only in well-established Narrativist groups* whose number of participants have become too low to sustain the losses of ongoing compaction cycles. (A set of conditions most frequently met within the context of a cult). Under these circumstances rather than expelling the last radicalized member of the group, the most vulnerable member of the group will become the target of severe social isolation (e.g. "the silent treatment), often in conjunction with ongoing psychological harassment. The target of a shunning cycle will often be forced to perform the most miserable/unpleasant tasks the group can arrange- with members of the inner circle often foisting much of their own work/chores/responsibilities onto the target of the shunning cycle.
*those whose members/participants have strong social ties to each other and/or an inability to easily leave the group.
A textbook example of a victim of a shunning cycle can be found in this article from Cracked.com "7 Horror Movie Scenes I Lived Inside a Real Apocalyptic Cult:
Winding up in a cult can be a little like binge drinking with your friends: you don't quite realize how fucked up you got until you wake up alone and hungover the next morning. Boze was kicked out of his cult for asking too many questions in 2012.
"Only then did I start to realize I had broken free from a cult. If you'd asked me about the cult leader prior to that, I'd have said he was the kindest person I knew. If you'd accused me of being a cult member, I'd have mocked you -- even during the eight months they shunned me with silence in my own house."
....
"There were reasons we followed him. Tyler could sense when people were distressed, and he made a point of tracking down people having difficult times and talking to them. He'd sit us down and be empathetic and a good listener."
You don't gain the loyalty of 20 otherwise sane people by acting like a dick 100 percent of the time. You earn it by being there for them at their lowest points -- that way it's more palatable when you do start dropping all the loony bits about demon wars and sacred fast-food seating arrangements. The few times Boze questioned Tyler led to him being shunned for months at a time by all of his friends, in his own house.
"I never got help during the eight months I was being shunned by seemingly every friend I had because I felt I deserved this. I just knew that if I tried to speak out and alert the authorities to what was happening in our group, I would be allowing my wicked heart to betray the one man who was trying to help me, the man who had saved me from hell."
A particularly ritualized example of the shunning cycle can be found within the cult Scientology. Members of Scientology's "clergy" organization (known as the Sea Org) can be assigned to the "Rehabilitative Project Force": (from wikipedia)
The Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, is the Church of Scientology's program for members of its Sea Organization who have allegedly violated expectations or policies. This may include members who are deemed to have hidden evil intentions towards Scientology, members who are unproductive in their work or who produce poor-quality work.The program includes manual labor tasks and the study of L. Ron Hubbard's works. The rehabilitation program may take more than a year to complete, and the Church has been accused of overworking and mistreating its participants.[1][2][3][4] Critics have characterized the RPF as a forced labor and re-indoctrination program comparable to the Soviet gulag system.The Rehabilitation Project Force developed out of a predecessor group, the Mud Box Brigade, which was formed aboard L. Ron Hubbard's private fleet in the late 1960s. The mud box is a small perforated screening box fitted to the suction pipe in the bilge of a ship, and is designed to catch larger solid waste before it can choke the pipeline and potentially damage the pump. The Mud Box Brigade was assigned to clean out the mud box as well as fuel lines, water hues, bilges and other parts of the fleet's ships.[5]Hubbard defined the role as being essentially a punishment duty for unsatisfactory workers: "More candidates will be appointed regularly and promptly every time I find a freeloader who is loafing on post and drifting with the wind."[5] Hubbard later clarified that "(T)his group is the most downstat [unproductive] and one gets assigned to it by being a freeloader, invisible on post, loafing and really goofing up on one's job."[6] Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton, however, suggested that "Hubbard understood it in terms of making retribution to the people who had been harmed by the nonperformance or incorrect performance of one's assigned tasks."[7]In 1969, Hubbard replaced the Mud Box Brigade with the Rehabilitation Unit, again intended for those removed or disciplined "as ineffective or trouble." Following an evaluation, the individual was to receive a set of "specific recommendations which if followed will rehabilitate the individual as a highly effective and worthwhile Sea Org member." Hubbard instructed that "(T)he unit is [to be] worked hard during the day on a rigorous schedule on jobs assigned by the Review Chief handling corrective areas and jobs needing remedy and repair. The Unit itself is thus made into an effective ship's review team. It works on a one job, one time, one place formula completing each job before moving into the next. Each individual thus earns the right to the remedial services he or she will receive."[8]Finally, the Rehabilitation Unit was replaced in January 1974 with the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF. According to Hubbard, "the RPF has been created by the Commodore [Hubbard] so that redemption can occur. That is basically its only purpose." He identified four categories of people who were to be assigned to the RPF: "rockslammers" (people deemed to have hidden evil intentions, as detected by the E-meter); people who were unproductive and scored poorly on the Oxford Capacity Analysis personality test; "repeated stat crashers", people who were held responsible for declines in Scientology organizations' productivity; and "overt product makers", people who produced poor-quality work. As before, the unit was to work on "one job, one place, one time." A five-hour study period was to be implemented each day to improve the individuals' knowledge of Scientology.[9] According to David G. Bromley and Douglas E. Cowan, the RPF involves a daily regimen of five hours of auditing or studying, eight hours of work, often physical labor, such as building renovation, and at least seven hours of sleep.
Violence Cycles: This variant of the compaction cycle occurs when either 1.)a growing or socially dominant Narrativist group is in a position of power over a vulnerable population, or 2.) a large number of compaction cycles have recently occurred in a movement that is losing narrative cohesion. (E.g. the violent attacks that marked the last days of The Weather Underground.) There are an unending plethora of historical examples of violence cycles; from the Khmer Rouge to the gulags of Stalinist Russia to the Rwandan genocide: violence cycles recognize no ideological, cultural, geographical, or racial boundaries. They are purely a consequence of (malfunctioning) human psychology- and any group of humans is vulnerable to (under the right circumstances) becoming Narrativists and participating in violence cycles*
*this is a human problem and can only be guarded against by developing a better collective understanding of human psychology. Contributing towards this goal is a primary motivation for this author.
Violence cycles operate on a spectrum- from small groups of Narrativists ambushing targets of opportunity (at the low end) to the organized mass killings of the Holocaust (at the most extreme end). The historical trend is for violence cycles to progressively become worse/more extreme until an outside force intervenes.
The targets of violence cycles are selected primarily based on a combination of convenience and lack of protection from social authorities- as a result the trend is for a given population's most vulnerable (who are closest at hand) to become the first targets of an emerging violence cycle.
Perhaps the most relevant current historical example of an emerging violence cycle is the refugee concentration camps being currently being operated (mostly) on America's southern border. In this specific example we have an example of Narrativism spreading rapidly within a population* seizing control of a sufficient amount of leadership positions in a society as to be able to begin conducting organized violence cycles- on a very large scale. The targets of these particular violence cycles are South American refugee's because they are (collectively) the most vulnerable population that can be easily accessed at this point in time. (It takes a lot of effort to individually drag people out of established homes/communities- refugees by their nature do not present this obstacle).
* Historically speaking: Narrativists do not need to be a majority (or even a significant minority) to seize control of the reigns of power
The relatively muted public reaction to the camps has effectively given permission for the violence cycle to escalate (mostly) unimpeded.* If an outside force does not intervene to close these camps, then conditions in them will only continue to worsen- even to the point where a significant number of refugees begin dying in these facilities from neglect.
*although the efforts of a number of Jewish activist groups, concerned citizens, and Congresswoman AOC// "The Squad" deserve recognition for doing everything they can to oppose the camps.
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