Beware of Self-Styled Saviors

We see people, groups, organizations, and products that all claim to be our saviors. Aside from religious cults and the like, we can observe this type of thing in politics quite frequently. "This candidate will bring change." "My politician is going to make my country great again." I could come up with a bunch of other thinly veiled references to recent presidents but it is unnecessary, I think. We can see the same type pitch being made by some religious figures and many cult leaders if we wish to use the more "on the nose" sort of example but things do not stop there. Companies will tell us about how this product or that item will "save" us from some unpleasant task. This isn't all for nothing either. These forces which seek to influence us are not foolish. They are not stupid. They understand that most people would like to be "saved" from something and that many people are willing to sacrifice quite a lot to achieve their desired salvation. This being the case, it is wise, I think, to be suspicious of anyone or anything that offers salvation because those who seek to exploit will often cloak themselves in the guise of saviors to reap the rewards of misrepresenting themselves.

There are two primary benefits for those who try to present themselves as some sort of savior. The first is rather straight forward. Someone, some group, or some company, identifies a problem that people suffer from and offer to fix it, for a price. Of course, the solution often doesn't work but that doesn't matter to the charlatan who duped us because the price has already been paid. On the more harmless end of the spectrum, we can see things like bad infomercial products. "Do you like [insert food] but are tired of all the [insert inconvenient thing about that food]? Now you don't have to worry because of the new [insert product that does not work]." Essentially, the savior angle is a marketing technique and in many cases, it does little more than lead a few people to waste a little bit of money. However, this can be far more destructive when serious matters are at stake. Some sophist may play savior and be elected to a high office and abuse his or her power, be incompetent, or be unstable. You see, the problem is that promises of salvation, whether they are in regards to, some undesired task, a political situation, poverty, happiness, or anything else, are often impossible to deliver on and the people making these promises know this, which makes them unworthy of our trust or support.

The second benefit for one who poses as a savior for his or her own gain is the loyalty of the people who believe his or her lies. Those who would mislead and exploit us know that we will feel indebted to anyone or anything that we believe "saved" us from something. If we think this politician saved us from some overblown nonissue, we will be more likely to follow his or her other agendas because we owe a debt of gratitude. In some cases, this can become a cult following in both the figurative and literal sense and that can lead to all the horrific outcomes that we associate with fanaticism.

The way to guard oneself from the potential negative outcomes associated with false saviors is to question anyone who comes to us with some amazing offer. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Why would a some political leader change a system that has enabled his or her rise to power? If He or she makes promises that no on can can fulfill, it is likely that he or she is being dishonest with us. The same goes for everything else in life. We all want to hear what we want to hear but we must fight the desire to believe that someone has come to save us because that desire is a liability that can and will be exploited. It is better, I think, to remain suspicious until we are given concrete evidence to suggest that a savior is what it seems to be.

Peace.

All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website, unsplash.com.