The Cult of the Personality original

Sheep on an assembly line, forced Intoxication.

While perusing political posters and art work from the twentieth century, I found myself drawn to the psychology behind the cult of the personality. It was interesting to see how each of the despots had attracted his followers by catering to the culture of his people. German posters emphasized military might for a humiliated people, Lenin was the literate leader, while Stalin emphasized industrial strength. Mao’s posters were centered on the family as the central tenet of Chinese society.

Coming from different cultural angles they all ended up essentially at the same point. In a quest to create utopia, they all created societies where people were suspicious of and feared one another, where the workers were treated in the most part as slaves, just replaceable parts in an inefficient assembly line of highly nurtured beings. I placed a combat helicopter above the scene to remind the viewer of the oppressive nature of societies ruled by the heavy hand of a dictator and his willing sycophants.

I can only hope that we cease regressing into a state of being where we wish to be ruled and manipulated by characters who do not have our best interests at heart.