The Cult of Cargo

     Ever heard of a Cargo Cult?
     Me neither, until I read about them recently in the Thomas Merton book Love and Living.
     Apparently, during early stages of western colonization in the South Pacific, the islanders were captivated by large cargo (kago) containers that would "magically" appear on shore via the white man. These containers -- sent by supply boats from England, France, or wherever -- would contain food, medicine, alcohol, tobacco, clothing, and all of the basic things a person or a village might want or need.
     Soon, the arrival of these containers led to a Messianic mindset and myth-making on the part of the islanders. Merton writes, "... Kago came to have a very important meaning for the native: the coming of a good time, when one would be like the whites and enjoy what the whites enjoyed -- the coming of the millennium." The islanders, who lived a rather miserable standard of living when compared to the white man, wanted to have kago of their own. They wanted to be on par with the white man, who got to sit on his front porch and never do much work.
     And since the Bible that the white man handed the islanders did not explain how to get kago, Merton writes, and because the natives never saw a factory or an industrial plant in England where these products were manufactured and processed, the natives started to develop mythical explanations. Was it the white man's ancestors, sending kago from across the sea? Did the natives have distant ancestors who would do the same?
     You can imagine where all of this would go. Rituals and customs emerged. In one instance, Merton writes, the natives saw how the white people liked to put flowers in front of their houses. Was it the flowers that summoned their ancestors to send kago? The islanders followed suit and soon had the whole island covered with flowers, thinking this to be a ritualistic act that would bring about kago for them.
     So what does this have to do with us today? Why would I blog about Cargo Cults of the South Pacific?
     Well, Merton goes on to make a powerful connection to our consumer culture today. We might laugh about this primitive behavior of the islanders, he writes, but we consumer-minded westerners have created Cargo Cults of our own that are every bit as "primitive" as the islanders.
     You will have to follow up with my blog later this week to read more about what Merton, writing in the 1960s, has to speak to us today. And of course, you may already see the connections yourself.