Opponents and Cultural Impact
Opponents consider Benda and some more active of his followers mentally ill and the Universe people as a potentially dangerous cult. According to Zdeněk Vojtíšek (from anticult Society for Studying of Sects and New Religious Movements), the movement represents a possible danger because of its religious background and similar features with Christianity.
In 2000, Benda announced the organization of the 1st World Symposium of Love, held at the Prague Castle under the auspices of the President Václav Havel. Havel's office denied his claims. Benda later stated that three months before the Symposium Havel said he will attend, but later changed his mind.
The group's enthusiastic propaganda on the Internet (a large website in garish colours) including spam, nature of their recorded "messages" as well as attempts to comment on every aspect of life and appropriate any popular notion (life in The Matrix, for example) has built it a Internet cult following who made fun of it and even visited Benda's frequent rambling public lectures.
Read more about this topic: Universe People
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