If you are somewhat familiar with Greek mythology, you might have heard of the infamous Trojan Horse story; the wooden horse that led to the fall of the city of Trojan.
The horse story is just a small part of an epic tragedy Agamemnon written by the ancient Greek tragedian, Aeschylus. In what has been termed the “greatest Greek tragedy” by many, Aeschylus displayed the collapse of a civilization.
Among many of the characters portrayed in the play, the one we are going to talk about is that of Cassandra’s.
Cassandra was the daughter of the king of Troy whom the Greek god Apollo fell in love with. Apollo was like a stubborn child who wants each of his desire to be fulfilled. So, in order to bait Cassandra into a romantic relationship with him, he gifted her the unique ability to foresee the future. But Cassandra was not the girl who could be easily seduced, even when it was God doing so, so she refuses to do what Apollo wanted.
Being furious about not getting what he wanted and being unable to reverse the provided ability to tell the future, he cursed Cassandra.
What was the curse?
It was that she can predict the future accurately, but nobody will believe her. Nobody would listen to her even when all of her warnings materialize.
Now that’s an effective way to punish someone.
It’s like sitting in an exam knowing the answers to all questions but forgetting how to write. You can imagine the frustration one has to go through in such situations.
And that might have been the case with Cassandra.
She didn’t only predict the Trojan war but also the Trojan horse incident. In both cases, she was ignored like we ignore homeless people asking for help. She tried to do all she could to at least stop the entry of the wooden horse into the fortress after having failed to prevent the war, but all of her efforts went into vain. Everyone made fun of her. She was called a fearmonger. She was silenced every time.
“How can there be soldiers inside a horse? She has gone crazy.”
What happened when the horse was taken into the fortress is something we all know. It resulted in the collapse of the city, exactly as Cassandra warned.
If you turn the clock back and be a witness to humanity’s short history on this planet, you will find that there had been numerous Cassandras during every period warning the rest of humanity of the impending crises, but the thing with Cassandras is that nobody believes them. Look carefully and deeply at today’s world and you would find some Cassandras in the present moment too, all over the world.
Even you might be one of them.
One thing that has been constant is that there have never been enough Cassandras, both in the past and the present. They have always been in shortage, which can be thought of as another curse.
In a world where the vast majority belongs to those who just flow along the status quo stream, being among the few who can recognize the incessant destruction caused by the status quo isn’t a privilege. First, you have to fight against your pre-conditioned beliefs to see through the fog of propaganda, which in itself is quite a difficult task, and second, you have to be surrounded by people who are still dancing to the beats of the establishment.
If you can see how our current ways of operating and organizing are pushing us collectively into not one but multiple crises; the food crisis, the water crisis, the climate crisis, the nuclear war crisis, the COVID crisis, the mental health crisis - some of which are already upon us while others are approaching fast; and working to raise awareness about those crises becomes your life project, then understand that you are following the footsteps of Cassandra.
Cassandra - who fought tooth and claw to protect her city and its civilization even when everyone was against her - seemed to be very selfless and caring. She never used the power to predict the future for her personal benefit, or it might be said that this thought never came into her mind. She could have gone to somewhere like the Wall Street and become the richest woman on the planet but for people who have a greater cause to fight for in their lives don’t give too much importance to things like money and fame.
They are socially abrasive.
This cognitive ability to detect threats before everyone catches on is called sentinel intelligence.
In her brilliant article, Jessica Wildfire writes for such people:
“Research in psychology has associated sentinel intelligence with higher levels of empathy, compassion, and overall intelligence. Sentinels care about people and want to keep them safe, even strangers. They’re naturally inclined to think about the greater good, and they’re more willing to put up with inconveniences for the sake of protecting their group. They’re also more willing to risk the alienation and sometimes embarrassment of being wrong.”
Mostly, people are so invested in the status quo that merely talking about its destructive tendencies makes them yell and scream, even when your points are based on scientific facts and logic.
Take climate change as an example, there are loads of scientific papers available on the Internet that show how our activities are warming up the planet and causing a sixth mass extinction event, but still when you talk about this topic on the Internet people waste no time calling you a fearmonger.
Apart from climate change, how dare you talk about the possibility of a nuclear war? As the US empire keeps ratcheting up tensions with Russia and China, the only people who are considered smart and logical are those who advocate for more escalations, while the real anti-war activists are shown as crazy people who don’t understand geopolitics.
Just saying two of the sanest things one can say for humanity qualifies you for being a “fearmonger.”
It doesn’t matter how many times your warnings have come true. It doesn’t matter how much evidence you have in your support. It doesn’t matter how logical your point is. It doesn’t matter how much damage ignoring your warnings cause. Nobody will come to you and apologize for ignoring your cautions. You will always be ridiculed and silenced - that’s the price for being Cassandra.
“But Harry, why do Cassandras are ignored even when they are right about the coming crisis/crises?”
That’s a good question.
The one thing that a normal human wants to preserve at all costs is the belief system he is running on. He would never want to admit directly that he is wrong because doing so would immediately put a question mark on the validity of all other assumptions and conclusions his life depends upon.
So, what’s the easy thing to do?
The easy thing to do is to simply ignore everything and keep going in the same direction. That’s why most people will never want to admit their mistakes. They would prefer being wrong 100 times and never having to admit it even once.
Therefore, one quality that Cassandras must have is that they must not strive for the approval of others because that leads to nothing other than frustration. If you have Cassandra-like tendencies, you must keep spreading the message even when people throw stones at you.
The thing with facts and Truth is that once you truly see them, once you clearly understand them, there’s no going back. Someone who really understands the pain that animals in both dairy and meat industry go through is never going to be a buyer of those products ever again. His understanding will never allow him to live according to the old patterns and conditioning.
However, if you are going vegan only because you think it’s hot topic in the market, then you will never stand your ground for long. The moment someone puts a well-cooked and deliciously smelling Rib Eye steak on the table, you are going to cave in.
The reason Cassandras put everything at stake for their mission is that they have done the work to understand the mission. Without understanding, there can be no commitment, and without commitment, the mission or the message can’t be advanced.
For Cassandras, ignoring the coming crises or staying silent is never the option.
They are not “idiots,” they are better at analyzing the current situation and seeing the destination it leads to. If they see that the present scenarios are going to lead to a collapse, they are going to call it out without the fear of being smeared by others because they place greater good above the self-image in their priority table.
They are not “fearmongers”, they are “fear-overcomers” because it takes a lot of courage and honesty to look past the mainstream thinking and being a unique voice.
Let me know what you think:
Here’s the recent thread I uploaded on Substack Reader app; it’s a WhatsApp-like group where we can discuss our opinions about a topic.
Come, join me there too :)
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Part of what makes me able to look for and see/hear truth also makes me a “difficult person” and thus a lousy salesman. I have often thought about Cassandra for the past few years. I just wanted to give you my appreciation, I am in a rush and will circle back.