Follow the Sight

Earthquake hit my country again today. That’s the third time in a week. It also marked a series of earthquake which started in 2004; two of them were also followed by tsunami. There’s a concern amongst the people that it might not be the last one: a bigger and more disastrous earthquake are possibly on its’ way. What do people do to confirm (or refute, although people seem to be more thrilled if it’s proven right rather than wrong) their concern then? Surprise, surprise, they consult the psychic.

Despite being in a modern era, professional psychics always manage to attract costumers. In fact, a lot of their costumers are well-educated; the type of people that you would least expected to believe in anything remotely “paranormal”. Trust the psychic to give you all sorts of advice: health, romance, financial, career, you name it!

But what it is that makes all the hocus-pocus so appealing? Why do people turn to them in times of needs?

Thinking logically makes it easier for us to understand how nature works. Through this understanding, we’ll be able to “exploit” nature to make our daily activities easier and more comfortable. However, being logical and believing scientific truth all the time is hardly a choice for most people. Logic and science are alien compared to the traditional practices that had run for generations. These practices might not be logical (or “socially acceptable”, for that matter), but they’re more “down to earth” and less “cocky”.

As much as I hate to point fingers, it’s quite obvious that the intellectuals are the ones who are mostly responsible for this sentiment. There’s a pretty good example of that statement. Instead of trying to make his/her patient understand about their illness, a doctor is keener on spitting out all medical terms he can muster. Of course, the best response one could expect from the patient is confusion. The point is, not many intellectual bother to transfer their knowledge with a “language” which would be comprehensible for the public. As a result, science and stuff become more alien and slightly scary for most people.

Considering that humans have the tendency to ignore things alien and scary, no wonder people ignore the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency’s statement that earthquake is unpredictable. On the contrary, they choose to trust the psychic’s premonition of incoming earthquake and even spread text messages to let people know about it. Ah, well!