The Reverse Cargo Cult · 12:32am Mar 26th, 2017
I saw this comment on Reddit, and I thought it was worth sharing:
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this kind of cynicism was referred to as the "reverse cargo cult" effect.
In a regular cargo cult, you have people who see an airstrip, and the cargo drops, so they build one out of straw, hoping for the same outcome. They don't know the difference between a straw airstrip and a real one, they just want the cargo.
In a reverse cargo cult, you have people who see an airstrip, and the cargo drops, so they build one out of straw. But there's a twist:
When they build the straw airstrip, it isn't because they are hoping for the same outcome. They know the difference, and know that because their airstrip is made of straw, it certainly won't yield any cargo, but it serves another purpose. They don't lie to the rubes and tell them that an airstrip made of straw will bring them cargo. That's an easy lie to dismantle. Instead, what they do is make it clear that the airstrip is made of straw, and doesn't work, but then tell you that the other guy's airstrip doesn't work either. They tell you that no airstrips yield cargo. The whole idea of cargo is a lie, and those fools, with their fancy airstrip made out of wood, concrete, and metal is just as wasteful and silly as one made of straw.
1980s Soviets knew that their government was lying to them about the strength and power of their society, the Communist Party couldn't hide all of the dysfunctions people saw on a daily basis. This didn't stop the Soviet leadership from lying. Instead, they just accused the West of being equally deceptive. "Sure, things might be bad here, but they are just as bad in America, and in America people are actually foolish enough to believe in the lie! Not like you, clever people. You get it. You know it is a lie."
I'm working my way through Harmony Theory, and one of the things the villain says which rings absolutely true is that every great con lets the mark feel like they've figured out the game, figured out the scam. They're in on the secret. They're getting away with something. They're in the know.
This false awareness is the heart of the master's grift: it flatters the mark's cleverness, and tells them they're wise to it all.
Fascinating! I'm sure this idea goes by other names, too
So it's the "You know I'm lying to you, but they're lying to their people too" theory. That does explain a lot of the Russian reaction in the 80's when people who escaped the Iron Curtain went into a Western store. Their military did a lot of that too, which made counter-military intelligence a royal pain because you could not tell what was pure fantasy filtered through Soviet propaganda and what was reality.
Russia still does it, to a certain degree. They don't build the "fake landing strips" so much as focus on any issue the West has and use that as a means to point out that life sucks here, too. It's just the natural order of things, so accept it, and don't blame us.
This is an interesting take on the notion of the cargo cult. Kind of reminds me of the whole nihilist vs. anti-nihilist debate. There is a story to be told in there too, the kind that makes you stop and ask questions that may not have answers. Certainly something to ponder on.
It sounds remarkably like life in the "post-truth" world our current crop of politicians and media moguls are trying to build.
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People are also extremely reluctant to admit to being conned; it makes them feel foolish. So they will act as though they weren't conned, as if they really got something, until it becomes impossible to pretend anymore.
Some people will never stop pretending.
It's how con artists get away with so much.
I can't help but think of When Boris Yeltsin Went Grocery Shopping in Clear Lake, TX.
This was in September, 1989, two months before the fall of the Berlin wall.
I think you can lie to your people for only so long, before the lie is revealed.