[1059] Cargo Cult Chinaware
└ posted on Thursday, 14 February 2019, by Novil
Based on a forum post I read some time ago.
- Sandra: Cargo cult chinaware.
- Woo: Excuse me?
- Sandra: Cargo cults developed on multiple islands in the Pacific in the first half of the last century. Western armies set up military bases there and introduced isolated peoples to manufactured goods, or “cargo”.
- Sandra: After the military personnel left, the native tribes implemented superstitious rituals that mimicked the behavior of the foreigners. Of course the desired cargo never materialized.
- Woo: I see. But what has that to do with chinaware?
- Sandra: Very much like fake airports won’t bring cargo, fake traditions won’t bring meaningful relationships.
- Sandra: These people bought “family china” and other useless crap in an attempt to “create” traditions. They viewed traditions as something you can buy, rather than something substantive, like shared experiences or at least a shared past.
- Sandra: They bought this expensive tableware solely for the purpose of passing it down to their children, keeping it in a cabinet so that it doesn’t get “ruined”. Its use didn’t matter to them, only what it represented.
- Sandra: Later, they were shocked when their children showed no emotional attachment to these things. Reading them bedtime stories would have been a much better “investment”…! These people weren’t evil, but terrible role models nonetheless. We can be better!
- Woo: Excuse me, but I need some cute raccoon kits now.
- Sandra: That’s the spirit!
![[1059] Cargo Cult Chinaware](/comics/2019-02-14-1059-cargo-cult-chinaware.png "[1059] Cargo Cult Chinaware")
I don’t know if there’s supposed to be a joke or something that I’m missing but Yeah! Raccoon kits!
Well, that was educational. Anyway, GIMME MORE RACCOON KIT CUTENESS!!!!
We call it “alienation”. Popular term 50 years ago (“New Left”, protests of students in USA, Germany, France…). Probably Sandra’s grandparents knows a lot about it!
Well, the comic is a bit like some xkcd comics: you learn to see something from a different angle without much of a joke. Just that the angle isn’t that surprising and the comic is a bit lengthy. Umm… anyway.
Maybe Oliver accidentally dropped some useless chinaware stuff in some friend’s home and that’s why he made this comic? 😉
No jokes today, only profundity.
I’ll admit that my family has buckets of fancy chinaware — but we actually use the stuff. It comes out every big family holiday, and we build memories (and fat stores 😛) with it. In fact, between holidays it doesn’t go in a display case, it goes in plain battered cardboard boxes in storage, ’cause that crap’s expensive and we don’t want to break any more than we have to. The whole “look, but don’t touch” thing is so unfathomably, mind-boggling contrary to the human experience — I’ve never really understood it.
one cabinet full of “chinaware” and another full of “winecups”, some other furniture full of plates and silverware, that have seen very little use for more than 3 decades, standing just right behind me. Mother keept on saying that those were for some future big day of celebration… but they are really just for display. Hoarding, maybe? Alienation for sure. Mother will die, without ever having used many of this wares… 🙂
Um, what the heck is this? We had quite the colorful and interesting thread going here starting with Cloud learning something he most definitely did NOT want to learn about his mother, we get a build up, we get a WALL, and now we’re off on this wild tangent! HUH?
Very insightful! Great strip.
@ DrWhoAR:
Procrastination on the Authors side, that’s what it is!
Hum. For once I actually agree with the entire premise of the comic.
And, for the record, my family has never used the “good china”. I fully intended on selling it when I inherit it, originally, buuuuut my SO insists on keeping it for decoration and adding it to hers. Which, whatever, I guess. But if we’re going to keep it, then I’m going to eat off of it.
Reminded of one of the episodes from Tsukikage Ran where they are tasked to find a collectable dinner plate and the person who tasked them with it flips out after realizing the plate was eaten off of.
I see. Instead of a Valentines day theme comic, we’re given a wise moral story on how to raise your children. Perhaps the author is expecting a high number of pregnancies this year?
@ DrWhoAR:
As right as you are, have you tried searching for a double-level comic? (I would but I don’t know how, so it irks me.) My point is, knowing what we know now (that they’re capable of doing such wizardry), check to make sure whether or not they’ve managed to pull a fast one on you, THEN complain.
I helped a friend pick out an antique china cabinet for her china, and she actually takes the good china out and uses it on a regular basis. Some people just think they look nice.
I am not pleased with the sudden collapse of the previous story arc. Though I don’t need to see Sandra in the sexy French maid costume, I really wanted to see Cloud’s facial expression when she showed it to him. Besides, he’s the one who gave her sexy lingerie for her birthday. Though, admittedly, that was under Larissa’s hypnotic influence.
I know someone with a glass chess set. I offered to play it with them, but they said it was too fragile, and they didn’t want to risk it. I asked if they had a different chess set, and they said no.
@ Andrew:
Just to clarify, the purpose of this was to make an appearance of “refinement”. I inadvertently called her bluff.
never seen the point of traditions, the times are changing so fast, most of them become completely obsolete by the time you have kids of your own
Lovely! A truly touching and relevant message. Famnily heirlooms require family bonds.
My late father’s family went along those lines, buying “heirlooms” that got sold at their estate sales. The only real heirloom is an old secretary that had been used by the family since the 1890’s. Not a person in the family didn’t have touching memories of playing around or under that thing when they were kids.
And on my mother’s side a cast-iron skillet that family legend says was used by my great-great grandmother to kill two would-be bandits during the “wild frontier” days of the 1830’s. Still makes great pancakes and bacon.
Well I am actually quite looking forward to getting grandma´s stainless steel set of forks knives and spoons…
You cant get anything that good nowadays.
Cargo cults are what the video game “Angry Birds” is based off.
My mom gave me her china when I got married. It wasn’t “show china”, it was Franciscan Desert Rose, which was our every day china we actually ate off of. Dishwasher and microwave safe and so heavy it’s practically indestructible. Twenty years later it’s still my day-to-day and only china.
Sort of the opposite of Cargo Cult China. 🙂
AnotherBear wrote:
I think we do need to see Cloud in his sexy maid costume however.
The heck with the cargo cult china, I wanna see Sandy in the maid’s costume! 😉
Ah yes, a real classic comic-writing technique. Because sometimes sharing your opinion on a blog just doesn’t cut it.
Andrew wrote:
I have got a glass chess set. Never played with it for lack of someone to play (on a tangential note, I actually haven’t played any chess in more than a decade, I think) but even when it was somewhat new I noticed that it’s not actually any good to play with. The protective piece of some sort of fabric on the underside of the pieces apparently was glued on so cheaply that now the pieces are basically glued to the board. I guess if I ever started playing again, I would go for a nice, pragmatic wooden chess set.
Even though I think the second part of the strip is awesome,
I don’t feel the same way about the first, I have walked along a non profit indigenous organization some time now, and i feel strongly empathetic with the cargo people, what they tried to do was improve their way of living, the knowledge they had to comprehend was limited to religious type, if someone of us had come to the middle age in Europe ¿Have they reacted differently?
One does the best they can with the tools that are given.
@ Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2:
For the sake of those who don’t know, the “secretary” in this context is a desk, not a person.
This is one of the rarer instances in this comic that remind me why I read it. The previous strip might be funny and silly but here is a moment of opinion and criticism.
This is very much reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes. Funny strips, thoughtful strips, touching strips. The humor is not always to my personal taste but then comes something like this and returns me to my nostalgic enjoyment of Calvin and Hobbes. Kudos!
@ Nobody: xkcd is the best! (second only to sandraandwoo ig)
Talk about your mood whiplash….
This is a meta-joke. Novil is trying to get us to introduce an alliterating term in the public consciousness.
I will admit that we have some good china, got it when we got married and thought we had to have a china pattern, and were gifted with a six piece setting, along with a matching tea service. It is very nice and we have used it on occasion, but it is a pain to clean afterwards, as it can’t go in the dishwasher, and we didn’t use it when the kids were little, as we were afraid of breaking it. Now the kids are grown and gone and we realized it is expensive, fragile dishware we have hardly used. Wife is making noises about getting rid of it.
As for the cargo cult theme, I am having a bit of trouble with the premise of this page, I am finding connecting the cargo cult phenomenon to the unused family heirloom thing a bit weak, just not seeing it.
@ TachyonCode:
This reminds me of my experiences as a kid, we had neighbours who had good furniture in the living room, that the kids weren’t allowed on. It was kept covered in clear plastic, and only used by adult guests when they came to visit, can’t remember if the plastic covers came off. Problem was the only T.V. was in that room, so the kids had to watch from the floor in the hallway.
Wow, that’s a thing. I thought it was made up til I looked it up. oO
So maybe aliens have landed and cargo cults resulted. O.o
Sorry, watched too much “history” channel…
People in “civilized” countries tend to think of the behavior of cargo cults as extremely silly. Many of these people also press the button multiple times at the crosswalk.
This is a very weird coincidence. When I was home for Christmas, my mom asked me if I wanted her china set. My paternal grandmother (who I never met) gave the set to my parents for their first anniversary. It’s stayed in a cabinet and we’ve never used them. I told her I didn’t want them because, like the comic says, I have no emotional attachment to them.
The thing I’d “correct” about the description of cargo cults, is that it’s not “manufactured” goods that were introduced to the isolated people, but rather, delivered goods and air-drops.
Still, this is yet another example of Novil having a programming day-job. “Cargo cult” is often used in reference to copying code from sites like Stack Overflow, without actually reading it, or understanding why it works or might not work in some cases.
@ Celti:
A few years Before I was born, my mother bought a TON of Bicentennial Chinaware that was discounted for buying lots of other things at the local grocery, so much that she could keep the redundant set in a cabinet while we used the rest all the time as I was growing up. If one broke, there was seemingly always a spare to replace it. So, yeah, I have emotional attachments to those, also patriotic as well, as they introduced me to many things about the American Revolution.
AAAHHH! I came here to laugh not to learn!
I actually want this strip woven into a blanket for some reason. LOL.
I am now not positive the place you are getting your information, however good topic.
I needs to spend some time studying much more or understanding more.
Thank you for great info I used to be searching for this info for my
mission.
“glurg”