The Red-Herring of the "Chosen One" prophecy

So despite the fact that so many of us Star Wars fans like to argue over which character is the "chosen one" (it's obviously Anakin), I've been warming to the idea that this mystery is a giant red herring. The real mystery is the prophecy itself. Where did it come from? Why has it persisted and influenced the decisions of the Jedi and the Sith so much? We haven't really seen anything with as much influence in either trilogy. We've seen evidence for why the Jedi Order has so much faith in the power of the force, but why put so much faith into this prophecy, especially when (at Qui Gon's time), there didn't even appear to be an imbalance in the force.Is the prophecy given more explicitly anywhere in canon other than a general, "The chosen one will bring balance to the force"? Who gave the prophecy? Who received it? In our world, those things matter, as its often just giving voice to an undercurrent of thought among an oppressed people. Frank Herbert's Dune series explored this idea in great detail. These prophecies didn't come from a supernatural place, but were a tool for organizing people according to the complicated socio-political strategies of ruling classes. So, could the prophecy have arisen from outside the Jedi order? From the Sith? Or somewhere else? How important is the origin and context of the prophecy going to be for the new trilogy? How much of the prophecy is self-fulfillment based on the characters trying to make the prophecy fit? via /r/StarWars http://ift.tt/2rXQqAD