Re: [Pen-l] The Obama cult

[Doyle Saylor <doylesaylor@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings Economists,
On Nov 28, 2008, at 8:53 PM, Perelman, Michael wrote:

> Barry Manilow on pen-l?  I am not sure what to do.  I am awed by
> celebrities.

Doyle;
Back to the original email, the term, cult, seems to me a very suspect  
political concept.  'Cult' of personality is often leveled at African  
leaders, or communist leaders, but I think mostly in the sense of  
media imagery rather than any sort of solid concept of what cult  
means.  Where cult is used as a psychological concept, as in cult  
interventions, the sense of cult really means group that is defined on  
the social margins.  And includes some sense of coercion in being a  
member to justify intervening in the group from outside.  That sort of  
cult is also poorly defined and egregiously aimed political thinking  
at vague targets to define dysfunction in social groups.

I think cults and the label are imperfect tools of economic analysis.   
A cult label does not really help us understand what is the  
dysfunction of groups processes.  Cult implies if one looks at the  
word root pre-modernity cultures.  So for example voo doo cults or  
cargo cults representing animist religious practices.  So a cult of  
personality is supposedly semi-religious worship of a powerful  
leader.  This is not a good way to understand mass media in my view  
especially in economic terms.

Media produces kinds of knowledge and we really don't know what is  
meant by religious thinking or content in media knowledge.  We can say  
most western religions partake of the current technology to peddle  
their world views.  And I've often said this religious traveling to  
modern technology rests upon the dynamics of the old cultural  
traditions of god or father at the head of groups of people to be  
understood as the 'leading' authority of knowledge.  But breaking down  
these religious knowledge forces to say 'cult' to my mind is incorrect.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor
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