REFLECTIONS Robert Silverberg , HE COME Apernicious scam—a hoax that might be of misinformation such an easy matter said to have taken on some aspects of a in the modern world. People hear what Messianic —spread through the they want to hear. A PSEG spokesman during the scorching sum- said that the victims thought it was “a mer of 2012, when thousands of people legitimate federally sponsored program, convinced themselves that the American and, of course, that can become confus- government was willing to pay up to one ing, because there are legitimate federal- thousand dollars toward their utility ly sponsored programs.” bills. East and west, north and south, the It became confusing, all right. Two joyous news spread across the Internet thousand customers of Entergy Corp. in and by automated telephone calls, by text Louisiana and Texas signed up for their messages, and even by the quaint old government checks, as did fifteen hun- process of stuffing printed fliers into your dred customers of Duke Energy in the mailbox. People made haste to tell their Carolinas, and bunches of others in Wis- friends about it through Facebook and consin, Mississippi, Michigan, and Iowa. the other social media. How many more were duped before the It all sounded very plausible, too. Our con men called off their campaign is un- benevolent government, deeply con- certain, but the total damage probably cerned about the utility-payment crisis at was considerable. a time of such economic difficulty across In a country where, as the PSEG the land, had supposedly set aside a huge spokesman said, “there are legitimate fund to help out with the bills. All you federally sponsored programs,” and new had to do, upon learning of this wondrous ones have been proposed regularly as the new benefit, was to supply a little person- financial crisis that began in 2008 deep- al information: your Social Security num- ened, it is reasonable to expect people be- ber, your credit-card number, your check- deviled by debt on all sides to grasp at ing-account number. You would then be such straws without stopping to consider given a bank routing number and check- that the administrators of legitimate fed- ing-account number to use when paying eral programs would very likely not need your next utility bill. The fake number to have their checking-account numbers would be rejected by the bank within a and surely would have no need for their day or two, but meanwhile the scammers credit-card numbers. Evidently there are would be busy cleaning out your bank ac- no limits to contemporary gullibility, count or going to town with your credit though. The whole episode summons to card. mind a somewhat similar adventure in The scheme worked particularly well optimism that spread through in the is- in New Jersey, where ten thousand cus- lands of the South Pacific in the early tomers of Public Service Electric & Gas twentieth century and came to have the fell for it, despite warnings from the util- general name of the cargo-cult religion: ity and various government agencies. the belief that a messiah from the heav- The trouble was that nobody seems to ens would come to the islanders, bringing pay much attention to such warnings, them their share of the material wealth whereas the happy reports of the bonan- that European colonial settlers so obvi- za spread rapidly through all the elec- ously enjoyed. tronic media that make communication The earliest of the cargo seems to

6 Asimov’s have arisen on New Guinea, where the docks, and airfields in preparation for the myth of a culture-hero named Mansren arrival of the magical ships and planes originated as far back as 1857. It was that would bring the cargo treasures said that Mansren, a mysterious figure from America. The newly arrived troops who was creator of the islands and their did indeed come with immense quanti- peoples, had sailed off into the stars long ties of cargo—the military supplies out of ago, but now was due to return, bringing which they would build the bases they with him all the dead ancestors, and in- needed for the battle against Japan— augurate an apocalyptic age of miracles. and distributed small gifts to the natives The black Papuan natives would turn of the island, and all this helped to rein- white, the white European settlers would force the hope that the promised savior turn black, and ships would arrive to was on his way. It was on Tanna, one of bring the people the fabulous goods that the eighty islands making up the New only the white people had previously Hebrides, that the cult messiah acquired had—knives, guns, lamps, clothes, bicy- the name of John Frum—perhaps be- cles, and ever so much more, the much- cause one of the GIs had introduced him- coveted “cargo” for which the islanders self to them as “John from America.” longed. After that, a golden age would be- Many of the incoming troops were black, gin for the islands, in which the whites which led to the belief that John Frum would leave, old age, illness, and death himself was a black man, and the slogan would likewise disappear, there would be “John Frum, he come” spread through no further need for anyone to work, and the land. the islanders would enjoy riches and To hasten the coming of the cargo the good health to the end of time. islanders discarded their recently adopt- Since the Mansren myth had certain ed western ways, thinking that they were aspects that paralleled —it offensive to the cargo gods. They gave up included the virgin birth of a miraculous European dress, reverting to loincloths child, engendered by Mansren by magical and body paint; they threw their money means—the Christian missionaries who into the sea; and in their confidence that came to New Guinea in the late nine- once the cargo had arrived all their needs teenth century chose not to make any would be provided for, they abandoned very strenuous attempts to suppress it, their farms and slaughtered their live- thinking that belief in Mansren might stock. They erected mock radio antennae provide an easy transition to belief in the made of bamboo and rope to pick up an- Christian God. What it led to, though, was nouncements of the journey of the cargo- an expansion of belief in Mansren, or in bearers to their island, and stockpiled similar mythical figures known by other great mounds of firewood to see them names, who would, like Mansren, appear through the three promised days of dark- out of the sky bearing the rich gifts that ness that would precede the millennial were generally known as “cargo.” moment. They held great dance festivals Throughout the 1930s the at which they implored the cargo gods to spread from island to island, updated come, erecting wooden altars to which now to specify delivery by airplane of they brought flowers and other offerings, such modern marvels as radios and tele- and they spent hours staring out to sea phones. One place where it became solid- or looking up into the sky, searching for ly rooted was the island group called the vessels that were to bring the mirac- , then known as the New He- ulous gifts. brides: when American troops landed John Frum did not come. Now and there in the early years of World War II then a false messiah would arise, claim- they found the natives hard at work ing to be he, and the European colonial building what they said were roads, authorities would arrest him and trans-

Reflections: John Frum, He Come 7 July 2013 port him to some other island. The chief written such a story myself. (So many impact of this was to intensify the devel- stories, so long ago: I have some difficul- opment of these messianic cults through- ty now in remembering all the work I out the region. Anthropologists have did fifty-odd years back.) Certainly it identified a host of such movements: the would have been a logical theme for the Taro Cult of New Guinea, the Tuka Cult pseudo-anthropological SF that was so of the Islands, the Vailala Madness of popular in the 1950s. Papua, and many more. They still thrive It’s easy, of course, to chuckle at the today on some islands, for believers in idea that the simple native folk of these messianic cults can be patient people. In islands may still be painting their faces, the Vanuatu archipelago, 15 is beating the tribal drums, and imploring celebrated every year as John Frum Day, mysterious gods to bring them television the day on which he will eventually ar- sets and smartphones aboard gleaming rive. There is ceremonial dancing, the al- airplanes descending from the heavens. tars are decorated, sacred relics of the But we ought not to be too condescend- wartime occupation such as military dog- ing here. What is the utility-bill scam of tags and soldiers’ helmets are brought 2012 but the naïve belief that our benign forth and displayed. Some years ago government will reach out to suffering Chief Isaac Wan Nikiau, then the leader citizens and pay the cost of those unusu- of the John Frum Movement, was quoted al air-conditioning bills of that torrid as saying that John Frum was “our God, summer? How many millions, or is it bil- our Jesus,” and would eventually return. lions, of dollars do Americans ship every By now the movement seems to have be- year to places like Nigeria and Kaza- come political and cosmopolitan: its khstan and Mali in the naïve and never leader, as of December 2011, was Thitam to be fulfilled hope that a cargo of money Goiset, a woman of Vietnamese origin will come thundering into their bank ac- whose brother, Dinh Van Than, is a pow- counts from some far-off benefactor? erful local businessman. John Frum, he will not come. But varia- I’m pretty sure that the cargo-cult tions on the cargo-cult dream have been phenomenon inspired more than one sci- with us since the earliest days of hu- ence fictional story, with the scene trans- manity, and, I suspect, they will still be ferred to some lush, bejungled alien acquiring followers when the sun is a planet where the “natives” pray daily for mere dim red ball in the dark chilly sky the arrival of a spaceship bearing mar- of the end of days. velous cargo for them. I even may have

8 Robert Silverberg