This episode of Living Myth begins with recent scientific reports which seek to explain why humans may be inclined to put their trust in leaders who claim to be strong and omniscient and will submit to those who are manipulative and deceitful. Studies in anthropology and psychology reveal age-old biases that lead people to believe what others believe in order to “fit in” and idealize and imitate those who appear to be highly successful.

These “hardwired” biases become activated during times of radical change and become amplified when collective levels of uncertainty and fear increase. The modern use of vast digital networks that can unleash floods of disinformation and falsehoods provokes the age-old fears and biases that can manipulate entire societies. The use of mass methods of communication are just the latest tactics in the long history of humanity's struggles over truth and trust and the willful misuse of power in ways that benefit the few at the expense of the overall community.

Michael Meade invokes the old idea that timeless problems can only be solved with timeless solutions. In order to avoid being overwhelmed by uncertainty and confusion we must look, not to the contemporary mainstream of life, but to the timeless streams of myth and imagination. As the fabric of life becomes frayed and time seems to be running out, timeless things that can alter the course of history try to slip back into human awareness. Despite our fears and misleading biases, we are also the inheritors of the capacity of the human soul to imagine a more unified world and find ways to reconnect to life’s innate capacity to transform and renew from within, precisely when all seems about to be lost.