Dear Log,
I keep thinking that people talk about the economy now just like they'd
have talked about appeasing gods, centuries ago. "Pontifex Greenspan
lowered interest rates again today amid market fears that the Oracle of
Ba'al would demand more sacrifices of live children...".
Worship
chaoticset on 2001-12-11T20:52:08
That sort of thing tends to occur whenever people have to deal with something but don't (or can't) know a lot about how it actually works. The knowledge set of that which is 'religious' tends to have complete overlap with the set of things that are 'not understood'.
IMHO.
the occult
TorgoX on 2001-12-12T04:16:28
An alternate(ly expressed) analysis:
people at their worst relate to supernatural forces and to social forces in the same way: as something supposedly greater than the individual, but as something in practice less than the individual -- whether it's the Greater Fool hypothesis, or in assuming that our fates are in the hands of gods who are mental six-year-olds.
