What is the minimum time to build a successful cult of personality?

I wasn't really sure what forum this belongs in, but After 1900 seems the most appropriate. What do people figure is the shortest possible time that a dictator can build themselves up to Stalin or Kim Il-Sung levels of adulation from the people?
 
Palin's has grown pretty quickly.

Palin hardly has a real cult of personality. She's very popular with the Tea Baggers, but that's nothing like a real cop.

A cult of personality can actually grow fairly quickly, but it depends on what sort of base you have, and the culture. Consider Hitler. He managed to create a cult of personality incredibly rapidly. He was from a country that didn't have much of a democratic tradition, and had perfect conditions to get a strong leader to become incredibly popular. He rose to power with the Nazis already having a decent number of followers, and he was incredibly popular with them even before he took power. Kim Jong-Il had an instant cult of personality, because he inherited it from his father. But for a cult of personality like that to crop up in America, where we have a very strong democratic heritage, would be much more difficult, and would require a long period of time... You aren't going to get too much more than Obama in his early presidential reign.

So there's just too many qualifiers in there, really! Minimum is zero days, since you can inherit it, but even without inheriting it, it can still be very rapid under perfect circumstances.
 
If you're looking for a good example of an American personality cult, early Obama is probably a lot better example than Palin. Remember just how convinced a lot of people were that Obama was going to be a nigh-superhuman leader who would transform American society and save the world from all its troubles?

Of course, Obama also provides a good example of why personality cults don't work in open regimes; the opposition still has an easy time getting its voice heard, and every time Obama makes a mistake or does the slightest thing that might offend anybody, everyone hears about it. Personality cults depend on control of the media to ensure that the only information out there is information that backs up the narrative of a great leader.

Going off other examples, it seems that once you control all the mass media a personality cult can be constructed within a fairly short number of years. Of course, actually controlling all the mass media is problematic at best in the internet age, and attempting to institute such control within a free society would not go over well.
 
I wasn't really sure what forum this belongs in, but After 1900 seems the most appropriate. What do people figure is the shortest possible time that a dictator can build themselves up to Stalin or Kim Il-Sung levels of adulation from the people?

Could be done in a year or two with backing. Cults can be built very quickly, with a strong core in just months if the cult-leader knows what he/she is doing. Timing and social/political situation is critical. If the society is going through some kind of disaster, it's very fast. If the core of followers are also highly intelligent, skilled writers & speakers & salesmen, and includes people with the political/government/military connections....

Of course, it does depend on how clever the leader is, and how close to the truth their words strike home. It's important to have a core of very determined followers/allies with similar aims.

First they have to encourage doubts and questions about the previous paradigm. Then start attacking it until a large percentage of people lose trust in the old paradigm. Then offer the possibility of something "better", not spelling it out too much, letting people fill in the details with their own assumptions.

I'd say 2 years is plausible, once they really get going. They may have to wait several years for the opportune time however.

If they take too long to build up, they may have missed their chance and other factions may copy some of their ideas and ride off with them instead. Just like politics or business. It's rare that there is only "one" such group with a single leader.

Oh, also the CULTURE of the society can make a big difference. Some are definitely more susceptible to certain influences and dominance. Every culture has hot buttons, just have to find the right ones.
 
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How about FDR?

IIRC he was very popular and the media essentially agreed to cover up the fact he was in a wheelchair.

When I died, I remember a rather iconic photo of some black guy playing the trumpet and crying. Crying.

On the other hand, the court-packing scheme got him a lot of criticism, and you wouldn't see that in a cult of personality.
 
How about FDR?

IIRC he was very popular and the media essentially agreed to cover up the fact he was in a wheelchair.

When I died, I remember a rather iconic photo of some black guy playing the trumpet and crying. Crying.

On the other hand, the court-packing scheme got him a lot of criticism, and you wouldn't see that in a cult of personality.

You could argue that a cult of personality is different in Western democracies than in other countries. I'd argue that Reagan, Churchill, and JFK all had "cults of personality" to an extent, though obviously not on Stalin-esque proportions.
 
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