Personality Cults - Larger than Life
A cult of personality is a political institution in which a country's leader uses mass media to create a larger-than-life public image through unquestioning flattery and praise.
A cult of personality differs from general hero worship in that it is specifically built around political leaders. However, the term cult of personality is often applied by analogy to refer to adulation of non-political leaders.
A bit like Big Brother always watching you in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
A personality cult is also characterized with many images and representations of a leader in public places, including statues, billboards, posters, signs, paintings, and vast murals.
Take the most contemproary example
"Dear Leader" and the"Great Leader" Kim Jong-il ,the north korean dictator also regularly hailed by the media as the "peerless leader" and "the great successor to the revolutionary cause.
The media also sometimes hails him by such lesser titles as "General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea", "Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission", and "Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.
Wonder how the man writes his name in a passport , i.e if Kim Jong-il needs one.anyways , hardly visits anyplace.
And personality cults are no longer a political leader's prerogative only.
A cult of personality differs from general hero worship in that it is specifically built around political leaders. However, the term cult of personality is often applied by analogy to refer to adulation of non-political leaders.
A bit like Big Brother always watching you in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
A personality cult is also characterized with many images and representations of a leader in public places, including statues, billboards, posters, signs, paintings, and vast murals.
Take the most contemproary example
"Dear Leader" and the"Great Leader" Kim Jong-il ,the north korean dictator also regularly hailed by the media as the "peerless leader" and "the great successor to the revolutionary cause.
The media also sometimes hails him by such lesser titles as "General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea", "Chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission", and "Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.
Wonder how the man writes his name in a passport , i.e if Kim Jong-il needs one.anyways , hardly visits anyplace.
And personality cults are no longer a political leader's prerogative only.
posted by tanmay at
10:15 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Tanmay,
While going through your this blog I'm a bit disillusioned as to what are you trying to implying by this blog.
It's true that personality cult is very common occurrence , however is it not the human nature to be mesmerized by Larger than life persona since time immemorial? If this is acceptable then should we really be blaming just the politics and people who swear by it ! On the flipside , let us assume that this tendency of Politicians and Nowadays Media is wrong , then isn’t the equal blame should be shared by democracy and people who drafted this constitution , that doesn’t guratee you to return you to return to politics after a certain period of time .
A bit weird it seems ….
I’m pointing it to this fact bacause nature has implicitly always governed the concept of “Survival of fittest” and this cult thing directly or indirectly points out to same thing.
Thus, a newsmaker of today maybe a remembrance of tomorrow , until this personality cult ensures the permanent space of front page , today tomorrow and always .
Do leave your comments ..
Good catch of the changing face of the world, and the Cults in them!
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