The Making of a Political God

***Warning!*** This article explores ideas of religion and God in a way that may be considered undesirable by some. I wrote this article in the most polite way I could, but it was inevitable that some of these ideas might challenge some people's religion. Therefore, please be open-minded when reading this article and know that I do not intend to sway anyone in any direction when it comes to the topic of faith. Thank you. :)

“The Waldo Moment”, from the Black Mirror television series, tells a story of a struggling comedian’s unlikely rise to political power and his subsequent fall from it. The way in which this comedian climbs the political ladder is by using a cartoonish avatar named “Waldo”. Waldo is highly rash and impudent— he is often making inappropriate jokes at the expense of his opponents. Despite this, Waldo somehow manages to decisively defeat his political candidates. The show explains this by saying that Waldo embodies the voice of the voting majority: they don’t want the same, crooked politicians. Using this advantage, “Waldo” is able to topple his enemies handily. However, such abilities do not come without danger. The danger of “Waldo” is that “he” is not a person— he is an idea that puppet masters control from behind the scenes. The show points this fact out with increasing frequency by including multiple scenes in which the comedian is impersonated in order to control Waldo. This intangible quality of Waldo allows him to bypass the normal restrictions that come with being human and enable conspirators to play the role of a deity.  In essence, as the episode portrays in its bleak ending, “Waldo” can become a god.

Before one can understand the level of strength a “Waldo” truly possesses, it is important to understand where that strength comes from. I think it’s safe to say that we follow leaders not necessarily because we want order (I think our recent election is enough evidence to justify such a claim), but rather because we crave focus and purpose. It is because of this that we tend to follow people who seem to possess this “focus” and  “purpose” that others, including ourselves, seem to lack. We hope that by following their lead we will also be infected with their drive and motivation— we believe they will lead us to a better place. Therefore, we aren’t following the person so much as we are following the ideas they exemplify. However, the problem with human leaders is that human leaders, by nature, are flawed simply because they are human. Because of this inevitability it is difficult to follow one particular leader because when they exhibit their flaws they remind us that they are only human: one perceived lapse in their focus and we are suddenly reminded that they are just like everyone else. We are even unforgiving in cases of death— when a leader dies, his/her successor is left to the unfortunate task of living up to the exact same idea that their predecessor represented. When they inevitably fail, we lash out and demand for reform: we demand a new leader who will once again charm us. This, I feel,  is why people worship “gods” — they are not worshiping the god itself, but what that god represents. For example, Christians don’t follow God solely because he is God, they follow him because they find that he is good, loving, and helpful. Since we have no way to prove or disprove the existence of our gods, these deities are able to remain in an elevated state of charismatic leadership: we can never fault our gods because they exist insofar as we believe that they do. If we believe in a good god, and others believe in a good god, then this “good god” gains the ability to shape our decisions and actions. The danger however, is that since a god cannot be proven to take active roles in our world (it can only be believed that he/she does take a role), this allows people to slide into positions in which they can alter and warp the nature of the deity. Positions, such as bishops and popes, grant the elected user the ability to impose their own will (whether good or bad) onto other people through the medium of their chosen god. There are several accounts in history, from inquisitions to indulgences, that support the idea of corruption through the use of gods. However, a god can never be blamed because the fault will always fall upon the humans who abuse the power of the god- never the god itself.

Understanding these aspects of deities, it is not hard to imagine why a “Waldo” could gather so much power. Waldo is not a tangible being— he exists within the collective realms of human minds. He also can bypass fault: after all, Waldo is only an idea— anything “he” does wrong can be quickly explained as the people behind him misusing his power. Even moreso, Waldo is an embodiment of the ideas that the public hold to be true. He is seen as the solution to their problems and struggles. If Waldo ever loses favor, perhaps when people’s problems change or when people’s ideas shift, a “new Waldo” can simply be invented to match the public’s concerns and values— a new god can be fabricated to maintain control over a population of people. That being said, I found the most frightening thing from the episode was not so much that they created a god, but rather that they created a god that works.