Grand visions always somehow left the world worse off. A quote I heard in the Netflix series “ The Signal”. And that lead me to think. Also watching the movie Dune and recalling books of the the Dune series, I had read long time back made me ponder.
Looking back at all the grand ideas and happenings in the human history, the quote did ring a bell. Grandiose visions and even grander ideas have always forced humanity in a different direction by plain brute force. Directions they lead to war, strife or a slow destruction. This has been seen at various timelines in the past. And humanity has meekly traveled in the direction shown to them. The reason being, majority of the humanity is made up of followers. Followers who will accept anything without any questions. Followers who will suspend their beliefs at the slightest nudge. Followers who will sacrifice their rationality and logic at the alter of a grandiose vision, which promises a lot but delivers nothing. Followers who will follow anything, provided it is dangled properly in the view.
The masses always want a messiah who will promise to deliver heaven to them. A heaven about which they have no clarity. Yet they want it, in this life or in afterlife. The problem is they don’t have any crystal clear idea about their heaven. The messiah also gives only vague ideas about it. At the same time, people also have a lot of questions about their travails and sufferings. All of which are due to randomness of life itself. Yet they want some answers. For them even fake answers would do as long it is an answer and it comes from the mouth of a messiah. And along with it some hope. Sometimes just relief from the unending cycle of pain and despair. It’s all because of misfortune. That’s what they are told and that’s what they believe. Yet most of things that happen are just random in nature. Success is just being at the right time and in the right place. It’s not that others don’t work hard. But success comes to only a few. And then the unsuccessful lot lands up in despair. They feel their life has no meaning and that there’s a huge void in their life which needs to be filled. All these kind of people look for and connect with people having similar thoughts and emotions. And then they wait. Wait for someone to come and fill in the void that they cannot themselves fill. That someone who fills that void, will be their Messiah. And luckily some charismatic character with a gift of gab comes along and gets eagerly accepted as the messiah. The messiah doesn’t even have to try very hard to convince. For there is a huge mass warning to believe in something other than reality.
The problem is, the messiah could be bluffing or they may be a person who believes in their own lies. They could also be narcissistic. Only a narcissistic person craves for attention and approval on a big scale. To ideally matched people meet. A person promising heaven and people eager to believe. A mass movement begins in some corner of the earth and spreads exponentially. A religion, a sect, an ideology, a belief system or a nation emerges. A rebellious mass movement which wants more and more followers. At all costs and by all means. Led by a messiah. Who promises a life of eternal bliss. In this life, in next life or in afterlife. People don’t care. They just want someone or something to latch on to. Someone who can lift them from their mundane and dull circumstances.
But in the end all messiahs have led humans towards their doom. Religious wars, political wars, genocide, totalitarian regimes all are what the messiahs will lead humanity towards. History is replete with examples if one reads it with an open mind. Reading it without eulogising the winners but looking at the path of destruction they led people through. The number of deaths. The quantum of destruction. All of which had affected the common people of those times but was never given the space that it deserved in history books.
In the end leaving the world in a far more worse place than before their advent.
The real problem in human evolution is the messiahs and the eager followers.
How do we get rid of them. Is the moot question.
And can we get actually rid of them, that is the larger question.
©️ShashikantDudhgaonkar
We need to take control of our destiny and not look to b others for deliverance
It is more than that.
World over in most countries there is Democracy in some form or other.
And during elections people invariably choose a candidate who is charismatic and a good speaker. But that doesn’t mean they will be good leaders.
In fact there are many good people who can be visionary leaders but they never reach the top because they don’t have charisma.
This is where the messiahs win hand down. They have charisma as well as the gift of gab.
Your analysis is spot on.
Thanks Sadje
You’re welcome ☺️