Cult Mentality

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I started thinking about this after reading some responses to my discussion on extremists. Actually, it's an idea that I've been pondering for quite a while, but that prompted me to go ahead and start a discussion on it. I think most people are aware of the dangers of religous cults, but the same mindset exists, it seems to me on lots of issues other than religion as well. To me you have a cult mentality if you are blindly obedient to an authority figure. It doesn't have to be religious. If you accept without question that what your government tells you is true and that you should obey them without question, you are a member of a cult. Or if you blindly follow your political party. I was trying to think of other examples, but really when it comes down to it, religion and government are the two main areas where people are in authority over others. Unless you count parents, but I'm not really talking about childhood here. I suppose you could say that people follow certain public figures like Dr. Phil with a cult-like mentality. Followers are everywhere, that's for sure. But with situations like that, there's really no harm done, as far as I can see. It's when you start following and supporting people or groups that have control over others that it becomes dangerous. The problem with cults, as I see it, is that the followers are blind to their own blindness. How is the problem of cult mentality solved?