Cassandra, Gayle Sayers

Donald Trump’s appeal explained in 1 very simple chart - The Washington Post:



Cassandra is the prophetess in Greek mythology that nobody ever believed. Gayle Sayers was a Chicago Bears running back that had the same knee injury I did and wrote a book "I Am Third" that was made into a movie, "Brian's Song".



The linked article "explains Trump" as an answer to "the loss of faith in US institutions", the Church, the Media and Congress being among the biggest losers. They don't point out that this "explanation" applied every bit as much to BO -- "Hope and Change" is even MORE vacuous than "Make America Great Again". BO promised to be "the one" -- to stop the rise of oceans, provide material security to all and most of all "heal the divisions'. Never mind, WaPo BELIEVED in BO, so voting for him seemed sensible.



Unsurprisingly, the media has become "Cassandra" (as have really all institutions)  -- less and less people actually believe what they say. Sure, a lot will still parrot it, but when pressed, they "heard it on the news / internet".  While the article considers Trump supporters foolish for listening to him, they loved BO supporters and were BO supporters themselves, and that didn't and still doesn't help their credibility any.



"I am third" meant, "God is first, my friends are second, and I am third".  The human tendency is to "look out for #1", being yourself as FIRST ... and usually by a WIDE margin. Putting God first gave people a lot of perspective -- it instituted the idea in the mind of "order" and of "categories". Attempting to put God first allowed perspective, and some thought to what the order ought to be. Friends? Family? other Christians?, Country? Fellow Man? ... the concept of it not being "every man for himself" was the space that allowed relationships, families, communities and countries to flourish.



The bottom line is that selfishness is a LARGE ingredient of human nature. The "value" of trading total selfishness on this earth for the promise of eternal life was a powerful idea, but when the American educational system, media and entertainment "killed god", they created MILLIONS of new "gods" -- with every man believing himself to be his own "god".



Without any ordering to the universe beyond "it is what I say it is and my "truth" is as good as anyone else's", people lose confidence in EVERYTHING -- because it is supposed to "all be about THEM", and of course no "institution" can be adequately about them to the degree that they believe it ought be. Oh, and by the way, it is THEIR OPINION that counts!



So as the Bible says, "the first shall be last" -- those who chose to usurp god put themselves in "last place" because there are now hundreds of millions of people who each believe they are in "first place" ahead of them.



Faith in leadership or organizations requires some sort of "order". When that is not divine,  the only way to implement it is force and fear.



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