History of Kult
1. Pre-founding
In 2000 an evocative, vocal social commentator named Sean Kennedy began
DJing and making promotions for his friend's Internet radio station
RantRadio. Kennedy began making longer promos in which he energetically
expressed his views on mainstream media, corporate culture,
individualism, and social issues ranging from religion to racism.
The popularity of Kennedy's rants got him a spot on a weekly RantRadio
talk show called "What The Hell?", in which he rapidly became a central
and powerful personality. His views on social order and independent
action inspired others to encourage him to form a social action
organization. In March 2000 Kennedy took a group of his close friends,
local fans, and RantRadio personalities and formed a tounge-in-cheek
social club called Kennedy's Uber Leet Terrorists, abbreviated KULT.
2. Solidification and growth
As the popularity of RantRadio and "What The Hell?" grew, so did Sean
Kennedy's popularity and his recorded "rants" proliferated across the
Net. Hand in hand with Sean and RantRadio's increased popularity, KULT
grew with new interest from fans of Kennedy's angry, energetic, and
rapid-fire commentary. Sean "The Fuckin Man" Kennedy released a CD of
his rants on MP3.com in early 2001.
Sean packed his belief system about personal realization, growth, and
social responsibility, which he called the Virus, into a KULT tome which
he called the Virus Manifesto. He took on the title of Patient Zero, a
medical term referring to the first known case of a viral infection.
Soon, with direction from Sean's somewhat-monthly radio addresses
(called BrainWashings), KULT evolved from a private joke to an active
and dynamic direct action organization which quickly grew to over 100
members. At its peak, KULT consisted of over 300 members. KULT members
eagerly developed a number of resources which encouraged communication
within the org, including websites, chat rooms, instant messaging
systems, and support systems, and members began to start Projects which
carried out Internet and real-world activities ranging from personal
improvement for Kult members, to information distribution, to
thought-provoking public spectacles and Internet policing.
3. Abuse
KULT's first test was in April of 2001 when one member, SkipRadio, was
arrested on charges of impersonating a police officer and possession of
child pornography. While in jail, Skip was phoned on the air at
RantRadio where he pled a case of innocence and good intentions. Kennedy
and RantRadio drummed up support for Skip's cause. After being released
on probation pending a hearing date, Skip slipped and admitted guilt in
the child porn charge and Kennedy kicked him out of Kult. Many members
who gave SkipRadio both moral and economic support were disappointed and
disillusioned.
This created the first significant split in Kult membership, and Kennedy
was criticized by members who believed Kennedy had misused Kult
comraderie and trust to benefit a liar.
4. Privilege
In 2001 Sean Kennedy appointed an honor guard of KULT's most involved
members which he called Guardians. Meant as role models and examples for
others, Kennedy often dispensed details of his plans for the org to the
Guardians first, often meeting privately with them as a group. The
Guardians were meant as only an honorary group, but naturally came to
gain a small amount of privilege from Kennedy. Despite friction from
some non-Guardian members, almost all Guardians were respected members
within KULT. The Guardians, it was said, would be the ones to form new
organization(s) if KULT were to ever die.
5. Exiling
After KULT began to attract a number of outspoken and critical members,
a number of people began to seek to change KULT's structure, which was
at that time a loosely operated community with a mildly militaristic
operational structure where Kennedy maintained control over membership,
structure, and direction. Many members vocally resisted Kennedy's
structure and stirred up many long discussions about the problems with
his system and ideas to reshape them. After much insistence that he
would make no such changes, Kennedy quickly began to throw out any
member who vocally opposed his system. In the next week almost a dozen
people would be expelled and many others would leave in protest.
The loss of many active members slowed KULT down considerably. After
this period, Kennedy decided to restrict new membership to only friends
of existing members, and gave new powers to the Guardians to remove
members and control activity.
Many of the members expelled from KULT during this incident formed a
loose online group which became known as
Exiles. As a result the incident became known as the Exiling. Many
sympathetic KULT members also contributed to Exiles, and many of those
members, especially many that were Guardians, came to be distrusted by
the inner circle of KULT.
6. Demoralization
Shorty after the Exiling and changing the membership policy, Kennedy
went on an extended vacation, leaving his favorite KULT member,
Smokehouse, in charge of the organization. Without Kennedy's outspoken
charisma, KULT lost the largest factor in its motivation. Smokehouse's
more agressive and confrontational demeanor did not have a positive
effect on morale or motivation, and the change in atmosphere with many
members' friends kicked out of the org kept moods dark and arguments
high.
7. Clinical death and revival
After a few months of stagnation and low morale, Zerstorer, a Guardian,
wrote a document which addressed the confusion and low morale in Kult,
and outlined the need for a new structure in Kult to increase
involvement, give membership control over the group's direction,
eliminate the concentration of power in one person, and encourage
creation of projects and action teams. The document became known as the
Revival Document. It eliminated the existence of the commanding position
of Patient Zero as well as the privy council of the Guardians. It laid
forth an organization system of groups and teams called Cells, divided
into departments, called Ministries, and where the bare essential of
group-wide decisions would be made by a Lead Cell of equal
representatives from each Ministry. Under the Revival plan, anyone
kicked out during the Exiling or who had fallen out of favor with
Kennedy would be allowed back in the org without having to reapply.
Initially the Revivial idea gained support even from most of the
Guardians, and soon the Guardians held a vote to determine whether they
would adopt the Revival plan, in turn eliminating themselves as a
controlling group and removing power from Sean Kennedy and his
replacement Smokehouse. Quickly after the vote, many Guardians and
others close to Kennedy and his Vancouver power circle dropped their
support, angrily criticizing Revival supporters for mistreating Kennedy
and Smokehouse and distorting what Kennedy had created. After hearing
about the Revival plan and the division in Kult, Sean Kennedy reappeared
from vacation, and immediately shut down KULT, freezing all KULT
resources under his control.
Having lost its original website, KULT members re-grouped at
thekult.net, a website created and controlled by Roto, a former Guardian
who had resigned as Guardian over an argument with other Guardians over
operation of KULT's website, and was later kicked out of KULT during the
Exiling when he resisted an order given to him from Sean Kennedy. Roto,
who had also operated the Exiles message board, quickly took freeware
weblog code and adapted it to serve as a membership and discussion
portal for displaced KULT members. Still wanting to go ahead with the
Revival plan, these displaced members, who still considered themselves
to be part of the same organization, re-created their organization
without Sean Kennedy. Renamed simply Kult, the group began to implement
a new organizational structure laid out by Zerstorer's Revival Document
and his Five Ministry Plan. Cells began to form within the Ministries,
and in January 2002, the first Lead Cell of representatives from each
Kult Ministry was elected.
In Februrary 2002, Decker Roto stumbled upon a sister organization which
was created in the wake of KULT's closure. Known at the time as Kult Black
Milk, a combination of a separate lost tribe of former Kult members and an
aligned organization known as Black Milk, this group had used the Virus
Manifesto, as written by Sean Kennedy in early 2001, to form a by-the-book
recreation of the original KULT as defined in the document. Former KULT
member Frail spearheaded the introduction of the Virus into Black Milk to
form the combined org, and took on the title of Patient Zero.
Shortly after being discovered by Roto, many former KULT members who had
stayed on with thekult.net but preferred the traditional KULT structure
joined Kult Black Milk and began contributing their efforts there. Soon
thekult.net, which had been vibrant during and after the Revival, suffered
a loss of activity. Many members held on to membership in both orgs, and
now each org competed for the attention and support of many
members. Political issues in thekult.net have also sparked exoduses, such
as the acceptance of SkipRadio into thekult.net as well as philosophical
issues related to interpersonal relationships.
Later Kult Black Milk dropped the original org's name and went only by
the name Kult, creating the potential for confusion between that group
and thekult.net. Ties between the two organizations have been strained
for some time.
Kult Black Milk is now known as Kult Grey Union.
Status unknown for some time, the group of former KULT members who had
begun a Kult Europe subgroup stayed aloof from the developments of both
TheKult.Net and Kult Black Milk. Angered in 2002 when TheKult.Net,
having been unable to reach an active European member, listed the group
as "inactive", Kult Europe then decided to operate as a separate
organization.
Future
Kult continues to gain members and grow in support, without the use of
royalistic or militaristic controlling structures and mandatory duties
and command chains. We continue to maintain the same basic message of
self-dependence, personal growth, social responsibility, and vigilance
on world power, a sentiment that has become only more relevant in
current world events. We want to return to large Internet and real-world
projects that help our members, inform and disillusion others, increase
public awareness and question popular culture and coroporate-government
influence. More than just a website, Kult is a discussion forum, project
incubator, social awareness movement and direct action network. If you
worry about the current state of the world, of society, or even of
yourself, apply to join Kult today.
(Created by the Ministry of Administration, 2/8/02)
(Last updated
5/22/03)