This letter constitutes a permission to reprint or mirror any and all of the
materials mentioned or linked to herein subject to appropriate credit and
linkback. Every article published MUST include the  author bio, including
the link to the author's Web site (at the bottom of this message).

===============================================================
True Prophets are Bad Team-players
By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

 

Prophets and prognosticators of social, political, and economic trends are often shunned, outcast, mocked, or outright punished. Even when their predictions come true during their own lifetime, they are rarely acknowledged or compensated for the abuse and mistreatment meted out to them throughout their "years in the desert". In stark contradistinction, the originators of scientific theories attain fame and a slew of pecuniary rewards once their theories prevail.

This disparity is because people are invested - both emotionally and materially - in prevailing social, economic, and political trends, fashions, and assets. The Establishment rely for their survival on inertia, and on the blindness, ignorance, and acquiescence of the masses. True prophets and successful prognosticators tend to "rock the boat" and undermine this edifice of wealth and privilege. They constitute a present and immediate danger. Social ostracism is the most effective weapon against them. Persecution may follow if it proves insufficient.

But, there are deeper reasons for the resentment and consequent maltreatment of true prophets and successful prognosticators.

First, by straying outside the "official line" and by predicting (and thus promoting) change, they prove themselves unable to conform to extant social mores, edicts, values, and etiquette. This overt non-conformism renders them solitary, idiosyncratic, and eccentric. They are not - and cannot be - team-players.

A good case can be made that human progress is dependent on the ability to work in teams. Disruptive, asocial, schizoid, narcissistic, or antisocial individuals threaten not only the society on the fringes of which they operate, but also the very survival of its members. Hence the almost instinctual aversion most people have towards the maverick, the pioneer, the innovator, and the successful prognosticator.

Second, as far as society goes, the very fulfillment of prophecies, predictions, and prognoses is humiliating and constitutes a major narcissistic injury. The prophet or analyst or prognosticator is in the position to gloat and to say: "I told you so!". Predictions come true and prophecies vindicated are reminders of the obtuseness, inanity, shortsightedness, and sheer stupidity of the masses and their leaders, who refused to listen to the repeated warnings of the prophet or prognosticator.

It is a lose-lose situation. If he gets it wrong, the prophet or prognosticator is subject to scorn and opprobrium. If he get it right, he become a source of constant embarrassment. His very willingness to go on a limb and stick his neck out renders him an oddity, best-avoided, or even best-suppressed.

==============================================================
AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)



Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self
Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East.
He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review,
PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI)
Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central
East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com