Cult of personality

[drei_lengua]

Hello everyone,

What does "cult of personality" mean and what is the origin? I have heard this in numerous contexts. One context I remember is the 80's song that has the lyrics "When a leader speaks, that leader dies...". I have also heard this on the Discovery and History channels but forgot what they were talking about.

Thank you in advance,
Drei

 

[psicutrinius]

First time I heard it it was ascribed to Stalin, and it meant that "the boss is like God, so he is worshipped and He Is The Truth itself", in other words, he was right, (by definition), he was wise, he was handsome, he was well-tempered, ...

The level was brought some notches up by Mao in China.

Saddam and Ceausescu (in Romania) were also quite adept to this.

See THIS for details and definition (hit the "continued below" dark brown link)