A cult of personality arises when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships.
A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders. However, the term may be applied by analogy to refer to adulation of religious or non-political leaders. (wikipedia)
Now, we all know some famous people like that for example Adolf Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong.
I believe in this world, there are quite a few other personalities that fall into this category. This category can be further split in to two, ie the obvious and the subtle cults.
Obvious personality cults are those famous ones, the undisputable ones that utilises propanganda till a great extent to build a personality cult around them, and seemingly like a demi-god, or even greater than a Greater Being.
Subtle ones are those that are not in the annals of history as personality cults yet, those that fully utilises propanganda too, but in less obvious ways. What do I mean by less obvious: By selecting certain activities in the past and twisting them to show himself/herself in a positive light,re-writing history, inculcating the youth in the pretext of national education, the help of mainstream media that gives extensive coverage, a prextext to withdraw but still in control, creating an aura of fear through eliminating opponents through legal(usually) or illegal means, extensive control over the country’s judiciary to further cement power. It must be said that such cults exist in democracies or pseudo-democracies.
It is normal for celebrities to be popular, but it gets out of hand when politicians are held in the same light as celebrities without due consideration given to his successes and failures.
case in point: Lee Kuan Yew
I will be clear on this. This entry does not seek to declare that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew as invoking a cult of personality. I leave the readers to form their own opinions whether he fits the bill of a subtle personality cult.
What I will do is to quote some choice bites from a popular networking website about Lee Kuan Yew, as written by Singaporeans, and leave you to form your own similarities or differences between him and the other cults of personalities.
- Actually when he smile hor.. he kinda looked like one of the Fu Lu Shou deities or something.. no wonder so many (pan tang) businessman trusted him and set up businesses here..
Wish you a long life.
These are just some examples.In my opinion, these did not seek to examine his achievements or failures, but just mindless adulation. In other words, clear examples of cult personality. I will leave the reader to formulate his own opinion, and hopefully share with everyone here. Self-censorship at work here.
The issue to discuss is that does Lee Kuan Yew fit the bill of a subtle personality cult, or is he just genuinely popular? Where do we draw the line between popularity and personality cults? Did Obama invoke a personality cult to gain his Presidency?
All comments are welcome. Please exercise responsibility and intelligence. Thanks! =)
8 Comments
September 25, 2009 at 8:54 am
DOTZ :0
January 19, 2009 at 1:10 am
whether u think he was the most evil person or the savior of singapore, it was a long time ago & he has definitely been very well compensated financially & in respect.
i just don’t understand why todays young people still worship him as god & that we still owe him & everything he endorse must be right such as his son, daughter-in-law etc.
get over it, lets move on.
January 19, 2009 at 1:51 am
always be grateful. that’s the message that he says. be grateful to him.
you really need to read those social studies textbooks and history books. classics. complete whitewash of historical events such as operation coldstore.
January 13, 2009 at 8:07 am
maybe its time to change the defamation laws even more then. especially for online defamation.
January 8, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Great post, citizen!
I made a recent blogpost with a quote made by this personality too – http://singaporeindianvoice.blogspot.com/2009/01/psle-results-one-of-few-times-we-can.html
December 29, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Er… If no luck involve at all then none. Since even stepping out of ur hse safety involve some form of luck. I think tat critical is too tough.
And, i guess u r right tat it’s hard to find good stuff tat he did. But if we really r tat critical, then it’s hard to find any good stuff tat anyone did. Thus maybe we can be less stringent. Since humans are flawed anyway.
Sicnerely i think the idea of HDB is pretty good. Just tat i guess, now profit is more important. Although the fact tat some HDB were built on lands tat i think was forcifully bought over cheap and subsequently HDB units sold back @ market rate. But the Idea, the Inital Idea of providing Cheap Housing for Citizen. I think tat’s good. By who i do not noe but i guess he must ve had some say in it.
And building of the roads infrastructure. Sincerely although there’s room for improvement but our roads i must say is not too bad. Just tat ERP, Tax here and there. 16 Gantry for 2+km road. Etc, quite a few things to spoil it.
I guess, well, i’m just unhappy with the fact tat the standard posture is always so defensive. It’s almost like we can not go wrong. Get wat i mean? As for screw ups or watever, actually i do not mind at all. Humans r Flawed. Tat’s a fact. But not admitting tat we r flawed is the worst Flaw of all.
December 29, 2008 at 10:59 am
Nice post. My opinion is tat his not genuinely popular. Becoz although i do not hate him, i’m very sure there are pple who hate him. I do not hate him but i do not adore him either. I guess his too high up to noe me and vice versa.
As for whether cult personality or not. Well… I sincerely do not noe. But ya, maybe…
On a side note, i ve to say tat there r things he did well in the PAST.
December 29, 2008 at 2:51 pm
thanks for your personal view =)
i am not so sure about the not genuinely popular, i can easily think of 81 people who loves him: the 81 PAP MPs.
please enlighten me on the things he did well in the past, and that can be conclusively linked to him and him alone and that no other factors must come into play including luck, and that no one else can do better given the same set of circumstances. I am very interested to know about that.