I can't stress enough the power of mythology, both in its magical ability to guide the efforts of an entire society, and in the energy and consideration a ruling class will put into it to facilitate their rule.
We have this massive economic, political, and social symbolic system that has come to completely disregard the underlying human (and ecological) reality. This is important to keep in mind anytime you are exposed to TV.
And of course, this has been going on some time. This is a power that can produce visions in its worshipers that completely obscure any semblance of truth. It is a power that can cause intelligence officials to believe destitute protesters - individuals made destitute by the very workings of the system both them and intelligence officials are a part of - are some sort of nefarious outsider conspiracy. It was communists then, and it is terrorists now.
We used to see the cargo cult as a feature peculiar to less technologically advanced societies, but I think the phenomenon of the cargo cult is just one of the manifestations of the spectacular distortions that can occur when an ideology drifts far enough from its reality. Really, the cargo cult, in its essence, is something that happens all the time. Of course the interpretations of the phenomenon itself are changing all the time too. The Wikipedia entry has changed since I saw it last, and this new formulation reflects the changing nature of interpretation.
You can see the dramatic effects of mythology on the persons closest to the center of power. They take on a different quality altogether. You see it when you watch political, economic, and cultural elites, powerful peoples that have to conduct themselves in accordance with the strictures of power.
They take on a robotic appearance, both aesthetically and in personality. I've felt this robotic quality myself. It probably takes its characteristic from the superego, or somewhere in the region of the temporal lobe, whatever you want to call it. When I perceive that I am trying to align my behaviors with some desired ideal, or an ideal that simply allows one to persist as a "normal" person within established institutions, I find that my movements and thoughts become rigid, directed. What the rest of my body wishes to do, or what my emotions wish to do, are all suppressed, with all appropriate behaviors selected and directed by the executive.
The circle is squared. The rich canvas of the real is amputated under a defined shape. This works for a while to achieve certain functions, but reality always seeks to express itself wherever resistance is weakest.
Again, it is impossible to overstate how remarkable this is.
