The self-fulfilling prophecy

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a false prophetic statement — a prophecy declared as truth when it is not — which sufficiently influences people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the false prophecy

Some examples of self-fulfilling prophecies in both ancient and modern times include:

The best-known example from Greek legend is that of Oedipus. Warned that his child would one day kill him, Laius abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die, but Oedipus was found and raised by others, and thus in ignorance of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing his foster parents were his real parents, he left his home and traveled Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger, his father, and killed him, and married his widow, Oedipus's mother.

Shakespeare's Macbeth is another classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The three witches give Macbeth a prophecy that Macbeth will eventually become king, but the offspring of his best friend will rule instead of his afterwards. Macbeth tries to make the first half true while trying to keep his bloodline on the throne instead of his friend's. Spurred by the prophecy, he kills the king and his friend, something he never would've done before. In the end, the evil actions he committed to become begin and avoid his succession by another's bloodline get him killed in a revolution.

The plot of the 2005 movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was based around a self-fulfilling prophecy. The main character, Anakin Skywalker, has a premonitory dream about the death of his wife Padmé Amidala. He searches for a way to save her, and in desperation, allies himself with the evil Sith. However, it is Anakin’s turn to evil that ends up killing Padmé.

The movie The Matrix heavily incorporates the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. One recognizable scene that directly references to it is when Morpheus takes Neo to see the Oracle. When Neo walks in to speak to the Oracle, she says, "I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase." Neo answers "What vase?" and turns around to see what she could be talking about, but in so doing knocks over and breaks a vase that was sitting on a counter next to him. Neo apologizes and the Oracle tells him not to worry about it. Neo asks how she knew, to which the Oracle responds, "What's really going to bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

The purpose of all of these references is twofold. First it demonstrates the prevalence of self-fulfilling prophecies in literature and second to provide context for a suggested solution. In case you ever run into a prophet who tells you something bad is going to happen to you in your future, my advice would be to just accept it. My reasoning for this suggestion is if the foretold event is going to happen one way or the other then why stress about preventing it form happening. On the other hand if the prophecy itself is what causes the prediction to come true, then the only way to prevent it from happening is to not react as you normally would. The normal reaction is usually to try and change your circumstances in order to avoid the predicted outcome so the only way to avoid the outcome is to do nothing. Imagine if Anakin Skywalker had just accepted Padme's death as the will of the force or if Oedipus had accepted his fate as the will of the gods and had not run away from home. It's like when a grizzly bear attacks you and you are supposed to go against your instinct to run and lie still while the bear mauls you. It's counter-intuitive but it is your only way to avoid an unpleasant fate.