Adherents defend a certain cause, idea or belief.
Adept is an adjective that can refer to someone who defends a certain cause or who supports a leader or an institution . The term comes from adeptus , a Latin term.
For example: “The German writer, a fan of romanticism, died two hundred years ago today” , “The truth is that I am not a fan of European cinema, I prefer American films” , “My grandson is a fan of new technologies” .
Examples of followers
Whoever is adept at something, therefore, provides support in different ways or participates in its proposal. A man who is an adherent of a religious movement will, in this way, respect its precepts and comply with what the authorities ask of him. The woman who is adept at baking will try to perfect the gastronomic preparations of this type that she usually makes, studying new techniques and trying recipes.
In a broad sense, one can be adept at an endless number of things . That person who enjoys listening to and dancing tango is adept at this musical genre. The filmmaker who works with million-dollar budgets can be said to be adept at large productions. The communicator who enjoys analyzing electoral processes and interviewing government officials and opposition leaders is adept at political journalism.
Those who are attached to clandestine organizations or sects are also called followers. Followers of David Koresh , the leader of the Davidian sect, participated in a confrontation with US security forces in 1993 that led to a mass suicide. These followers of Koresh can be classified as adepts since the group lived outside the law , committing different crimes in a closed community.
Those who follow a leader are his followers.
The importance of affinity
It is important to note that we are not always followers of the groups or movements that we believe we respect. The first step to reaching this state of total empathy and support is affinity , that coincidence of tastes and opinions that occurs spontaneously and that gives us the opportunity to establish closer relationships with others. Once we notice this similarity of character, we approach the other and try to know more and more about him. However, in this first instance we cannot yet qualify as followers, since for this the degree of commitment must become much higher.
It often happens that a group catches our attention because of some of their ideas and we begin to follow them, but over time we realize that we don't have that many things in common; It may even happen that we find a very disappointing and regrettable difference, such as the contrast between animalism and bullfighting, for example. At that moment, we made the inevitable decision to no longer follow these people, since the affinity was only partial .
The opposite may also happen: that the subjects of whom we call ourselves followers are not happy with our way of interpreting their principles , and therefore consider us an obstacle to carrying out their activities. In short, for the qualification with this adjective to be completely valid, both parties must agree.
Antonyms of adept
To better understand the concept of adept, it is very useful to take a look at two of its antonyms: enemy and adversary .
These are two terms with very similar meanings, especially in terms of the position they denote with respect to the ideas of a third party: a person's enemies are on the opposite side , they confront him, they wish him harm and in many cases cases they hurt her or even try to get rid of her. Her opponents are also against her, they are very different from her and may have the same attitudes as the previous ones.