12-13-2020, 11:35 PM
(12-11-2020, 06:01 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(12-11-2020, 05:33 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: "Personality cult" is a derogatory term as most see it. It is obviously more difficult to put the label on someone like Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter... If we are talking about national leaders, do you really want to assign one to Barack Obama as you would to Benito Mussolini? If one can attach it to any leader, then the term becomes meaningless.
In a genuine democracy, one would not expect to see the image of the President attached everywhere. To be sure, the personality cult around Trump is still 100% voluntary... but I can only imagine that having no Trump paraphernalia might have become harmful to one's business opportunities or advancement on the job had Trump won. (He didn't, so I guess we can flush the Valium down the toilet and save the vodka for a suitable celebration -- like getting a vaccine for COVID-19).
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Sir Winston Churchill, Mohandas Gandhi, or Charles de Gaulle get the recognition for legitimate deeds.
Personality cult, political popularity, legitimate recognition for deeds, they have some similarity. A bunch of people get behind a leader for good (or perhaps not good) reason. You are correct that 'personality cult' is a derogatory label. We would have to define exactly what such a personality cult is other than working towards something something you don’t like.
What is the difference between the cultures following Churchill and Mussolini other than your admiring one culture over another? Is there something specifically in the style of leadership that can be pointed out as bad?
I am not sure that British culture is superior to Italian culture.
Trying to recover some mythical and now questionable lost glory would be a characteristic of a personality cult. Dismantling what one considers internal decadence because it is difference and trying to take credit for such (Franco, Pinochet) would be a personality cult. The personality cult is a denial of the right to differ with the leader.
Churchill did not suppress the Labour Party; he wanted it on his side in the war against Hitler, and Labour endorsed Churchill as similarly firm in contempt of Adolf Hitler as the Labour Party was. FDR left the Republican party intact and unhindered.
One of the tests is the postage stamp. Reigning monarchs excused, other living persons do not belong on them. Obviously if anything happened to Barack Obama that took him away from us we would quickly see his image on postage stamps and perhaps even coins. But not until then! So it was with Ike. We would see plenty of statues go up with his image... but not until then. Again, see Ike.
The righteous need no ratification of their wonder; the wicked often do.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
