The cargo cult and the protestant ethic as conflicting ideologies: Implications for education

As a prolonged endeavor, education has been ideologically justified in American society by the certainty of the Protestant ethic, in terms of rewards for adherence and punishment for deviation. That certainty is increasingly challenged by contemporary culture's numerous celebrations of cataclysmic reward of inherent endowment, cunning, speculative choice, and fortuitous circumstances. In essence, a nascent cargo cult ideology posits as an alternative to the certainty of the Protestant ethic, the indetermination of good fortune. This paper seeks to distinguish the Protestant ethic and cargo oult as competing ideologies, how each articulates to the organization of formal education and its presumptions, and some implications of their contention for education.