Crisis of Legitimacy

Abduction of Europe by Zeus, the white bull - Sébastien Leclerc the younger

JMSmith has few words to say about our current state of affairs. I think this passage gives a good overview: 

The United States is in the midst of profound crisis of legitimacy.  As a once-famous sociologist explained,

“Crises of legitimacy are primarily a recent historical phenomenon, following the rise of sharp cleavages among groups which are able, because of mass communication, to organize around different values than those previously considered to be the only acceptable ones.”*

Thus the printing press caused a crisis of legitimacy for the culture that was rooted in churches; the newspaper caused a crisis of legitimacy for the culture that was rooted in libraries; the gramophone, radio and television caused a crisis of legitimacy for the culture that was rooted in newspapers, and the internet caused a crisis of legitimacy for the culture that was rooted in broadcast media.

This is obvious but very far from the whole story.  Our current crisis of legitimacy does not only follow from seismic changes in communication technology, but also and more importantly from the stunning duplicity and mendacity these seismic changes exposed in what many until recently thought were independent media.

P.S. The original title of the painting was L'enlèvement d'Europe. Looking for more information about the painting I discovered that everybody and their mother has painted their own version of this event.