[Peace-discuss] Keywords: cult, cult of personality

[Szoke, Ron]

Keywords  020420

CULT
1.a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest
	—The Free Dictionary

CULT OF PERSONALITY
a situation in which a public figure (such as a political leader) is deliberately presented to the people of a country as a great person who should be admired and loved.   — Merriam-Webster

// Russia has a very long history of worshiping rulers; as the Tsars were glorified as wise and gracious leaders, some historians take the line that the communist regime adapted this tradition.[89] In the era of Stalinism, the Soviet state fostered an extreme cult of personality around Joseph Stalin.

// “Comrades, the cult of the individual acquired such monstrous size chiefly because Stalin himself, using all conceivable methods, supported the glorification of his own person.... One of the most characteristic examples of Stalin's self-glorification and of his lack of even elementary modesty is the edition of his Short Biography, which was published in 1948.

“This book is an expression of the most dissolute flattery, an example of making a man into a godhead, of transforming him into an infallible sage, "the greatest leader", "sublime strategist of all times and nations". Finally no other words could be found with which to lift Stalin up to the heavens.

“We need not give here examples of the loathsome adulation filling this book. All we need to add is that they all were approved and edited by Stalin personally and some of them were added in his own handwriting to the draft text of the book.[90]”

Some authors (e.g., Alexander Zinovyev) have argued that Leonid Brezhnev's rule was also characterized by a cult of personality, though unlike Stalin, Brezhnev did not initiate large-scale persecutions in the country. One of the aspects of Leonid Brezhnev's cult of personality was his obsession with titles, rewards and decorations, leading to his inflated decoration with medals, orders and so on.[91] This was often ridiculed by the ordinary people and led to the creation of many political jokes.

Some journalists and Russian oppositionists argue that there is now a cult of personality around Vladimir Putin (see also Putinism). Currently, one-fourth of the Russian population believes that a cult of personality reminiscent of Soviet Union-era leaders has developed around Vladimir Putin, while another thirty percent believed that there were increasing signs of a personality cult surrounding Putin. Evidence of this includes food products named after him.[92] Other evidence of Putin's personality cult includes the existence of the Army of Putin, his own female fan club [93] as well as his involvement in action man publicity stunts.[92] According to the United States Government-funded Radio Free Europe, in December 2015, a Russian youth group by the name of "Network" published a book titled "World-Changing Words: Key quotes of Vladimir Putin", which has been compared to Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.[94]
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// Several Presidents in American history have been accused by various historians as being supported by the effects of a cult of personality, among them George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[154][155][156][157][158][159] Another American politician to whom a cult of personality has been ascribed is Huey Long, the populist Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932, who continued to control the politics of the state as a United States Senator until he was assassinated in 1935.[160][161] The cult of personality which grew up around John F. Kennedy largely came about after his assassination, and the cult of Ronald Reagan also came mostly after his time in office, when his administration was adopted by many conservative and right-wing personalities as being the "last good time" in recent American history.

// A number of scholarly papers and peer-reviewed articles have assessed the personality cult that some say has developed around U.S. president Donald Trump. A paper that appeared in the 2016 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting stated that "during the 2016 Presidential primaries, the 'cult of personality' candidate, Trump, won the primary."[162] Larry Schweikart and Joel Pollak's How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, states that "some conservatives looked forward to Trump's defeat as a chance to rid the GOP of the insufficiently conservative insurgents who were bringing it to defeat by choosing a candidate who was a mere reality-show Hollywood celebrity, a lifetime liberal who was hijacking their party and their cause with a vain cult of personality."[163] Ethnologists Jonathan Rosa and Yarimar Bonilla wrote of "Trump's xenophobia, bombast, and cult of personality, reminiscent of leaders in South Africa, Gambia, Uganda, Libya, and Zimbabwe."[164] Daniel Kato noted that "according to political theorist Hannah Arendt's thinking Trump may yet hunker down, drawing strength from the resistance to him, and continue to consolidate his cult of personality."[165]

Articles, editorials, and a number of elected officials on both ends of the political spectrum have noted Trump's emerging cult of personality, [166] while others have cited in particular his repeated claim that "the news media are the enemy of the people"[167] as one hallmark of such a central figure, deriving directly from Stalin's use of the phrase.[168]
			— Wikipedia  020420

// Cp. charisma, charismatic authority, Caesarism
		— Compiled by RSz.