Den Beste discusses initiation ceremonies and how they bind people to groups, which may explain why anti-war protests so often involve humiliating and degrading behavior. The interviews documented by Evan Coyne Maloney seem to bear this out. The protesters knew the slogans but they didn't seem to have a clue when they were asked to defend them.

I think that rock concerts and festivals like Woodstock or Grateful Dead concerts have a similar effect.

Initiations have been around as long as there have been people, because we are a social species, like so many others, and we find security in groups. Many of these, like organized crime "families," involve blood oaths.

Anyone familiar with the Book of Mormon will recognize the phrase "secret combinations."/br