Happy Jon Frum day! Can’t believe I almost missed it. From an excellent 2006 article on the subject of Cargo Cults: “You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes.” The locals don’t know where the foreigners’ endless supplies come from and so suspect they were summoned by magic, sent from the spirit world. To entice the Americans back after the war, islanders throughout the region constructed piers and carved airstrips from their fields. They prayed for ships and planes to once again come out of nowhere, bearing all kinds of treasures: jeeps and washing machines, radios and motorcycles, canned meat and candy. This is the most sensible religion the world currently offers. They actually saw that shit happen 60 years ago. It also inspired this lovely extended analogy from Serge Gainsbourg, wherein he compares the Cargo Cult mentality to his own at the end of an affair.

Happy Jon Frum day! Can’t believe I almost missed it. From an excellent 2006 article on the subject of Cargo Cults:

“You get cargo cults when the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descends on remote, indigenous tribes.” The locals don’t know where the foreigners’ endless supplies come from and so suspect they were summoned by magic, sent from the spirit world. To entice the Americans back after the war, islanders throughout the region constructed piers and carved airstrips from their fields. They prayed for ships and planes to once again come out of nowhere, bearing all kinds of treasures: jeeps and washing machines, radios and motorcycles, canned meat and candy.

This is the most sensible religion the world currently offers. They actually saw that shit happen 60 years ago. It also inspired this lovely extended analogy from Serge Gainsbourg, wherein he compares the Cargo Cult mentality to his own at the end of an affair.


February 15