Abstract

For many of the world’s nations, one thing stands out: extreme sociopolitical devotion to a Leader. This research seeks to show that cults of personality develop through identifiable mechanisms. Moreover, the modalities of visual communication employed to entrench the ideologies and omnipresence of the Leader can be defined by specific values that progress from a state of “emergence” to one of “entrenchment.” This process is illustrated by the Value Progression Model, a nonempirical way of showing the cult of personality establishment, and the role played by cultural artifacts in maintaining visual saturation, and hence, perceptions of the Leader’s omnipotence.