Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise [Paperback]

First, Butterfield shows, very well, why Amway's economic model is doomed to fail, and its promises of "financial freedom" are totally bogus. This is discussed extensively on the internet, and I shall not repeat the reasons here (just search "Amway AND bad" on google, for example.) Suffice to say that the VAST majority (over 99%) of Amway representatives never make a dime, and instead LOSE lots of money in buying stuff they don't need to impress (and enrich) the tiny minority of "heavy-hitting" distributers in the very top that make money off the lower-level suckers.

So why does anybody join--and why do so many stay even when they should realize they have been duped? Here is where Butterfields' book gets really insteresting. His main claim is that Amway is, literally, a cult. Cults manage to destroy their memebers while retaining their unconditional support. How do cults do this? And how does Amway do it? Butterfield proves that, yes, it is a cult, and it uses the usual cult techniques to get new memebers and retain old ones.

This seems absurd on its face. When most people think of cults, they think of bizzare beliefs or extreme antisocial behavior, like Jehovah's Witnesses, Heaven's Gate, or The People's Temple. How can Amway be a cult when its memebers believe no such things and behave normally? But the essential sign of a cult is not bizzare beliefs themselves, but two other issues: DECEPTION and THOUGHT CONTROL. Cults recruit people by decieving them by giving them a rosy, "tourist" story about the cult's goals, and convincing them they can reach these desires quickly and easily inside the cult; they only tell them the "dark side" when the prospect is already "hooked". Once hooked, a cult will do its best to isolate you from anybody that has a negative opinion of the cult. You shall have no other gods beside the cult.

Butterfield shows that Amway has both of these characteristics in spades. Deception is the most obvious: for example, you are NEVER invited to an Amway meeting. You are always approached to "look at a new business opportunity"; if you ask if it is Amway, nine times out of ten the representative will lie and say that it isn't. You are never told the actual amount of money the average distributor makes in this "amazing business opportunity" ([$] a month--BEFORE expenses), how many hours a week it really requires (more like 50-60 than the claimed 10-15), what percentage actually become millionaires (less than 500 in the entire history of Amway, that is, about 1 in 15,000--when about 3% of the American population in general are millionaires) or anything else that is "negative". This is only reveled, if at all, piece by piece, after the distributor is "hooked" and will no longer consider leaving.

The second is mind control. Butterfiled shows how this happens in great detail. You will be encouraged to "flush" your friends and family if they do not support Amway (that is, not join); they are "losers". You must never discuss anything "negative" (not involving Amway in a pleasant way)--so don't watch TV, use the internet, or do anything else except Amway; only read "positive" material, such as motivational material conveniently put out by Amway higher-ups. And, above all, "trust your upline"--those who sponsored you into Amway. Never mind he is the mechanic on the other street who joined a week before you did. You must "edify" him, considered him all-knowing and succesful, and do anything he says--because he "loves" you. Pretty soon, your only source of information is your "upline" and motivational materials peddled by them, and anybody else, your mother included, are ignored--which is precisely the point of cultic thought control.

If you ever thought of joining Amway, you will be cured of the idea after reading this book--thank God. If there is anything faulty about this book, it is that Butterfield often confuses the medium and the message. He is just as annoyed at WHAT Amway is telling its sheep to believe (essentially, right-of-center political and religious views) as in the WAY it is done (thought control). But this is missing the point. First, the opinions themselves are not necessarily bad (although Amway does have its share of openly racist, homophobic "leaders".) Just because Butterfield doesn't agree with it doesn't make it evil, and Amway would be just as bad if it brainwashed people to believe in socialism and muticulturalism, which Butterfield supports, or for that matter, that 2+2=4. It is the extremism and cultism that are the problem.

Overall, a fascinating, excellent book--only be a bit wary of the author's own bias. However, contrary to what some wrote, his bias does NOT invalidate his conclusions about Amway's cultic nature.

--Richard Brodie, author, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

"If you have a dream the facts just don't matter" Butterfield just tells the facts.