Thread by @ChifeDr

THE SAVIOR COMPLEX
Every failing society manifests a strong desire for quick redemption often expressed in a wish for a savior; the one who is to come.
The need is so deeply wired into the human consciousness that movie makers sometimes employ deus ex machina to satisfy it
1/

The concept of “salvation” in religious dogma is founded on a similar proposition: that one’s bad deeds, regardless of their gravity - bad faith and betrayals, adultery, larceny, etc - can be wiped away in one fell swoop thereby unburdening one in the after life
2/

It was precisely this desideratum that propelled Nigeria, a society of low moral tendency driven to nihilistic extremes and self-flagellation to latch onto an ascetic and abstemious anti-corruption crusader cum spiritual leader. A man-god waffling into senescence 3/

The Nigerian wish fulfillment has very close parallels in history. Extreme suffering and exclusion from society imposed on Eastern European Jews gave rise to several false messiahs.
It also produced the Mahdi phenomenon is West African Islam.
4/

Ali Solih, former President of the Comoros once declared:
“I’m your God and master. There is no other God but Ali Solih”
5/

And though the claims of such “saviors” are often religious in nature, the despairing deliverance seeking masses have accepted them at face value poverty and ignorance creating a strong vulnerability for enacting a a snake oil deception and preying on their sheer incredulity.
6/

History tells us that the triumph of individuals with a savior complex is a short run phenomenon. Founded on nothing, they leave nothing as a legacy.

This stands to reason.

As Nietzsche avers, “the frog which has puffed up itself too long will burst; the wind comes out”

7/END