“Mao’s own personality cult is a complicated phenomenon. 

A personality cult is a little like a religion.  For centuries people have been droning, ‘Lord have mercy upon us; Lord help us and protect us.’

And have all the prayers helped?  Of course not. 

But people are set in their ways and continue to believe in God despite all the evidence to the contrary. “

Khrushchev Remembers, Little, Brown & Company, 1970