https://hanshowe.org/2017/02/04/trump-and-the-reverse-cargo-cult/
"Trump administration lies constantly but doesn’t even attempt to make
it seem like they aren’t lying.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this kind of cynicism was
referred to as the “reverse cargo cult” effect.
In a regular cargo cult, you have people who see an airstrip, and the
cargo drops, so they build one out of straw, hoping for the same
outcome. They don’t know the difference between a straw airstrip and a
real one, they just want the cargo.
In a reverse cargo cult, you have people who see an airstrip, and the
cargo drops, so they build one out of straw. But there’s a twist:
When they build the straw airstrip, it
isn’t because they are hoping
for the same outcome. They know the difference, and know that because
their airstrip is made of straw, it certainly won’t yield any cargo, but
it serves another purpose. They don’t lie to the rubes and tell them
that an airstrip made of straw will bring them cargo. That’s an easy lie
to dismantle. Instead, what they do is make it clear that the airstrip
is made of straw, and doesn’t work, but then tell you that the other
guy’s airstrip doesn’t work either. They tell you that
no airstrips
yield cargo. The whole
idea of cargo is a lie, and those fools, with
their fancy airstrip made out of wood, concrete, and metal is just as
wasteful and silly as one made of straw."
Via Samuel Smith, who wrote "All of a sudden, I have a name to put to
many of the arguments against national healthcare, gun control, etc.
where people say it’s no better in other countries or isn’t possible."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
