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decipher the phenomena that are Charles Manson and his followers. The two
theories compliment each other well in the sense that, as a charismatic leader,
one can lead a group to feeling the intensity of collective effervescence, as in the
example of Charles Manson and his followers. I shall first examine the two
theories separately.
Durkheim, “the passions unleashed are so torrential that nothing can hold them.
People are so far outside the ordinary conditions of life, and so conscious of that
fact, that they feel a certain need to set themselves above and beyond ordinary
excitability among a group of people can be seen in the open at college parties,
during church services, or even at political rallies (Hughes, Martin, and Sharrock
1995).
It can result in a feeling of purity such as one would after a church service.
Effervescence can also result in violence from mobs, rioters, gang members, or
cults. Individuals under its spell often do things they would not do under normal
A Sociological Examination 3
murder would have never occurred without the solidarity its members feel
provides a symbolic meaning to and a reminder for said feelings (The Elementary
Forms of Religious Life 1995). This object often presents itself as a totem or a
totemic being. Some examples are the Christian cross, the republican elephant,
and for the Charles Manson “family,” the Beatles song, Helter Skelter,
secretive (at least in the beginning stages) and considered deviant from the rest of
“firelight” due to the fact that these meetings are often only illuminated by a
universal and can be found in every society, as this is certainly the case with
Charles Manson and his followers. According the Durkheimian scholar, Karen E.
Fields, “If Durkheim is right that it is universal, then we should expect to find it,
and do find it, from tattooed street gangs to the Salvation Army, from the habits
effervescences are the familiar Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. In many cases,
facilitator. The facilitator’s goal is to typically get people together and motivate
them to achieve a certain goal or task (The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
1995). This leader is often a charismatic one. The mention of the charismatic
leader will now lead us into the discussion of Weber’s The Nature of Charismatic
Domination.
type of leader is a colonel in the United States Military. The second type is
words, a successor is always in place to take the place of a current leader in order
more of the three types of authority. For instance, the President of the United
leaders is the belief their charismatic qualities are due to a supernatural means.
themselves to his or her cause and leave his or her other life behind. Pure
Pure charismatic leaders usually reject working for money to support him or
herself and his or her cause. Weber refers to this as “economic exploitation”
(Miller 1963). Leaders tend to rely on something other than themselves for food,
force.” Examples of pure charisma are Jesus Christ, and, although on an entirely
Manson’s life and the story of the murders before the application of the theories
is made possible.
Charles Manson was born on November 12th, 1934 in Ohio. He spent most
of his life in prison. Upon his last release before his murder conviction, he
decided to move to San Francisco. There, he fell into the hippie scene. He met
many other hippies and established himself as their leader as they traveled the
Eventually, things went wrong within the “family.” Manson heard the
Beatles Song, Helter Skelter, and assumed the Beatles wrote that song specifically
for him. He preached to the “family” that there was an impending racial war
followers to do the “dirty work,” per se. He instructed his “family” to commit
A Sociological Examination 6
in order to start the racial war. His followers wrote in blood at the murder scenes
phrases like, “helter skelter,” and “pigs,” and “death to pigs” (Wetpaint).
Susan Atkins, though, recently died in prison. However, because we now know
and understand the story of Manson and his family, applying Weber and
result in violence from mobs, rioters, gang members, or cults, such as in this
things they would not normally do, which is definitely valid here where violent,
At the ranch, the “family” took LSD together and participated in group
orgies. The family experienced collective effervescence during these group orgies.
of intense group solidarity onto a totem or totemic being. The Beatles song,
Helter Skelter, presents itself to the Manson family as a totem for their belief of
the impending racial war between whites and blacks. Thus, the song, Helter
established his charismatic authority when he and his companions traveled the
influencing these people in a direct way to forget their previous lives and adopt
the new life of a Manson “family” member. Manson used several means to gain
people’s trust, which was necessary in order for Manson to maintain his
leadership. He really enjoyed giving LSD tablets to his followers, but not taking
them himself. He refrained from taking LSD in order to retain his ability to
manipulate his followers into believing and trusting him. Another way Manson
apocalyptic “helter skelter,” so long as one would maintain his or her loyalty and
racial war. Manson also influenced his followers in an indistinguishable way that
if a follower were to break away from the family, he would physically harm or
had a way of speaking to people that made individuals feel comfortable and, thus,
theorizing that leaders commonly believe their charismatic qualities are God-
given.
fact, he rejected all other forms of authority. Some say he had to reject all other
forms of leadership due to the fact that he was trying to appeal to mostly runaway
Manson and his family often stole money and cars in order to not only
stole a car, for example, they would in turn experience an adrenaline rush.
Committing a crime with another person or persons also requires a high level of
trust in your partner or partners. Due to the combination of the high level of
trust and the adrenaline rush that is felt collectively, the group experiences the
effervescence often feed off of each other, which often results in the creation of
summation, the sociological theories of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber can be
effectively applied to the story of Charles Manson and his followers to explain
References
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. . New York: The Free
Press, 1995.
Durkheim, Emile. The Human Meaning of Religion. Peter Kivisto. Social Theory
Roots and Branches: Readings: 68-75. New York: Oxford University Press,
2008.
Miller, S M., and Alfred M. Lee, eds. Max Weber: Selections from his work, with
1963.
Ritzer, George. Contemporary Sociological Theory and its Classical Roots: The
Weber, Max. The Nature of Charismatic Domination. Peter Kivisto. Social Theory
Press, 2008.