During World War II, American troops arrived by planes and ships to some Pacific islands and, during their stay, gave goods to the inhabitants. When the war ended, the troops stopped going to the islands and the natives stopped receiving the precious goods and gifts. And then there was an eye-catching phenomenon: the natives began to build monuments shaped like airplanes. They believed that by repeating exactly what they had seen those gods from heaven do, more planes would magically come with goods and gifts.
This phenomenon is what we call Cargo Cult. The concept is used as a metaphor to describe a very valid problem: the effort to try to replicate certain results by mimicking behaviors – rituals – without understanding the true causes that lead to those results.
source: The Opposite of Agility: Rituals, Ceremonies, and the Cargo Cult
See also: dogmatism (twotw)
No comments:
Post a Comment