A Terrible Mistake

(5)

Before I leave the subject of Pat Robertson tonight I want to mention a disturbing (to me) aspect of The 700 Club: it seems to exhibit aspects of a 'Cargo Cult.' Do you know what a Cargo Cult is? No? Then allow me to enlighten you a little.

I first became acquainted with the concept of 'cargo cult' in the film, Mondo Cane. This cult, which was a religious cult, flowered in New Guinea (or maybe it was Borneo) during and after WWII. The aboriginal natives there witnessed the operations at American air bases and, unable to understand the complex technology involved in the movement of cargo by aircraft, formulated their unique version of how 'cargo' appeared in the sky and was attracted to the proper landing area. They hypothesizied that all cargo came from their ancestors in heaven and that the Americans had somehow figured out how to hijack their rightful spoils.

So they built small 'airfields' on the tops of flat hills, clearing out small landing strips, and even adding rickety 'control towers' near the middle of their little air bases, hoping to attract cargo from above. They waited and waited. But no cargo-bearing airplanes appeared. They waited for months, then years because they had great faith: they were certain that eventually the ancestors would realize that the Americans had hijacked their rightful treasure from heaven and begin to deliver cargo to them.

It never happened of course. No C-47 ever tried to make an emergence landing on such a small hilltop airstrip.

But little by little, as time wore on, those same natives began to benefit from real cargo which made its way to them by a process concerning which they were clueless. Cargo Cults largely disappeared as a result, but not quite. I have no doubt that even as I type this there is, somewhere in New Guinea or Borneo, a Cargo Cult holding on grimly, waiting for the arrival of the day-certain on which their beloved ancestors will finally realize their terrible mistake.