When I listened to Pack’s rant about the individual who left the RCG because he was tired of “faking it,” my initial thoughts were regarding what the individual meant by “faking.” It was only later that I considered the simple fact that mentioning it at all shows a startling lack of critical thinking, a Pack-ian level of egocentrism, or some combination of the two. It was a great and foolish risk Pack took because that comment undoubtedly resonated with members sitting in the headquarters building and reverberated throughout the small congregations worldwide.

Pack probably can’t imagine the number of people in his church who heard that comment and felt it as an indictment of themselves. He suggested it was a question of lying; the individual who quit and everyone remaining who nonetheless relate to the statement all understand it as a question of self-preservation. Pack intended it as an insult to the individual of little faith who was lying by his very presence among true believers; his audience heard it as a tacit admission that the cognitive dissonance required to remain in the RCG is simply overwhelming for many. Pack meant to insult the former member; instead, he only drew attention to his own failures and the cognitive/emotional stress they create.

This highlights just how far Pack has retreated into his own ego. He can’t even realize when the decisions of others are a clear condemnation of his own actions. Sequestered in his compound, his every need handled by others, he can’t even imagine the mental anguish his followers are suffering. Everything he says and does filters through the lens of his own ego, and the refraction of that lens is so complete that Pack literally cannot differentiate his own ego from the world around him.

I know we all hate Hitler comparisons, but I can’t help but draw parallels between Hitler’s decision-making process at the end of the war and Pack’s at what appears to be the end of the RCG. As the Soviets encircled Berlin and defeat became inevitable and obvious, Hitler moved battalions that essentially no longer existed and ordered attacks from army groups that had been decimated. He remained convinced of his certain victory, and he discussed the stunning blow his imaginary, newly-rebuilt Luftwaffe was about to deliver despite the fact that the Allies had complete domination of the skies of Europe. Surrounded by sycophants who were terrified of crossing him, Hitler lived in an echo chamber that only confirmed and compounded his delusions.

Even more telling, when the battle had begun turning months earlier, there might have been a chance for Germany to fight to a stalemate in the east and gain some time to rebuild its forces. Had Hitler ordered the cessation of transports to concentration camps and used those trains to shuttle soldiers to the eastern front, he could have at least slowed his defeat and perhaps prevented it completely. Instead, he did the opposite: he increased the transports to the camps and left his soldiers on the Soviet front with inadequate manpower and supplies. He couldn’t see past his own ego and his sick obsession with being an ultimate “hero” by rendering Europe judenfrei regardless of the war’s outcome. His inward-looking decisions thankfully cost him the war, because simply based on the numbers in 1939, Germany should have conquered Europe.

Similarly, we seem to see this playing out in Europe yet again. Putin has isolated himself, believes his own propaganda, and is convinced of his military genius and his force’s ultimate strength. Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, Putin has lived in almost complete isolation, and his view of the outside world reflects that. He attacked Ukraine on an imagined pretense; he was confident of a quick victory because his army certainly had to be at least as strong as his ego; his forces suffer loss after loss because he either can’t or won’t concede that his tactics are not working. His ego inflates yet again and more people suffer as a result.

In just the same way, Pack’s ego and his certainty in his prophetic acumen have swelled to proportions that conceal everything else. He, too, has surrounded himself with sycophants and isolated himself not only from the real world but from the lay members that constitute the intellectual isolation that is the RCG. The army that is encircling the compound at Wadsworth is more powerful than the Soviet army, more persistent than the Ukrainian forces: it’s reality, the most merciless conqueror in history.