The notion of a political leader as the Messianic object of devotion of a "cargo cult" is, I concede, pretty darned clever. It taps effectively into ideas about entitlement and politics-as-religion. It also uses a seemingly neutral anthropological term in an attempt to disguise the inherent bigotry of the analogy.
The term "cargo cult" seems to have originated in an article written by Norris Bird for the November 1945 issue of the colonial newsletter Pacific Islands Monthly. As Lamont Lindstrom writes,
"An Australian expatriate named Norris Bird introduced "cargo cult" in an article in which he warned of the dangers of training and arming Papua New Guineans to serve in a native militia. [...] The label "cargo cult" thus originated as mockery, abuse and fear-mongering. It served as low political rhetoric for revanchist expatriates, like Bird, who could sense that the post-war colonial order in Papua New Guinea was no longer what it had been and feared the consequences." (L. Lindstrom, 'Cargo Cult at the Third Millennium,' in H. Jebens, ed., Cargo, Cult and Culture Critique, University of Hawaii Press, 2004, p.19)
Hmmm... "mockery," "abuse," "fear-mongering," "low political rhetoric" and "revanchist"? Looks as though the analogy most aptly describes the fringers employing the term, clumsy and ironic in their ignorance.
P.S. - this is my first diary, so be kind
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