Cargo Cults

[Pottapaug1938]

I was reading this article on "cargo cults":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

The section entitled "Other Uses of the Term" is especially interesting -- it reminds me of my favorite prosperity program (that reminds me -- I've got to go back outside and wait for my packie...).

[fortinbras]

Yes, the image of a cargo cult definitely seems appropriate with the NESARA crowd.

Cargo cults mostly began on, reportedly, small islands in the South Pacific that were used as US (or British) bases during WW2. Purportedly the savage or near-savage natives saw squads of soldiers, occasional NCOs carrying clipboards, and, best of all, the arrival of supply planes or ships carrying food, tools, furniture and other things that eventually ended up with the natives. Supposedly, after VJ Day, these natives (now, their grandchildren, assuming the cults still exist, which I tend to doubt) would try to regenerate the deliveries by emulating the soldiers - marching around in squads, carrying planks resembling clipboards, etc.

Is there any way at all to estimate how many people out there actually take Casper seriously??!

[Pottapaug1938]

Yes, the image of a cargo cult definitely seems appropriate with the NESARA crowd.

Cargo cults mostly began on, reportedly, small islands in the South Pacific that were used as US (or British) bases during WW2. Purportedly the savage or near-savage natives saw squads of soldiers, occasional NCOs carrying clipboards, and, best of all, the arrival of supply planes or ships carrying food, tools, furniture and other things that eventually ended up with the natives. Supposedly, after VJ Day, these natives (now, their grandchildren, assuming the cults still exist, which I tend to doubt) would try to regenerate the deliveries by emulating the soldiers - marching around in squads, carrying planks resembling clipboards, etc.

Apparently, a few still do.

[Deep Knight]

The section of the Wikipedia entry referenced above:

Other use of the term

From time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance. The error of logic made by the islanders consisted of mistaking a necessary condition (i.e., building airstrips, control towers, etc.) for cargo to come flying in, for a sufficient condition for cargo to come flying in, thereby reversing the causation. On a lower level, they repeated the same error by e.g. mistaking the necessary condition (i.e. build something that looks like a control tower) for building a control tower, for a sufficient condition for building a control tower.

The inception of cargo cults often is defined as being based on a flawed model of causation, being the confusion between the logical concepts of necessary condition and sufficient condition when aiming to obtain a certain result. Based on this definition, the term "cargo cult" also is used in business and science to refer to a particular type of fallacy whereby ill-considered effort and ceremony take place but go unrewarded due to flawed models of causation as described above.

One of the first things I read online about NESARA was an article titled something like “New Age Cargo Cult.” This was in 2002 after hearing the guy featured in “Waiting for NESARA” on a local militia-friendly talk radio station (on a show hosted by Joyce Riley, whose conspiracy-laden show “The Power Hour” is also worth checking out if you ever have the chance). It doesn’t seem to be on the web anymore (no doubt taken down due to the air-tight NESARA non-disclosure) but I did see a lot of NESARA posting with the terms “Clinton cargo cult” in the text or title (Big Daddy, that you?).