Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Rushing back to the Middle Ages

An unfortunate woman was charged last week with drowning her young son 
in an exorcism. An exorcism. As we approach the end of the 20th 
century, the obscurantism of the Middle Ages is clearly alive and well.

The Enlightenment was more than 200 years ago, but demonic possession is 
almost a commonplace occurrence once again.

In the 16th century the court of Ivan the Terrible was disturbed by rumours 
of goblins and witches riding around the sky, and by mysterious events — 
bells falling from their belfries, etc. "Holy men" proclaimed the Tsar to 
be possessed by the Devil.

In Eisenstein's great film Ivan The Terrible, when the stirred-up 
crowd forces its way in to confront the Tsar about these unnatural 
happenings, Ivan (wonderful performance from Nikolai Cherkassov) shrewdly 
points out that a bell can no more spontaneously fall from a belfry than a 
head spontaneously fall from a neck: it has to be cut free.

Ivan's listeners were gullible, ignorant and misled, but they weren't 
stupid. Today's victims of superstition are no more stupid than those of 
the 16th century, but they do seem to be just as gullible.

And why not? They are not taught to be healthily sceptical. They are not 
taught to have a scientific approach to phenomena and the world around 
them. They are in fact taught that the world is a mishmash of "sensations", 
and the more outlandish the sensation is, the more "significant" it is.

Some overwrought Catholics in rural NSW convince themselves they can see 
the Virgin Mary in some chipped paintwork on the back of a door and the 
media rush to report it as an "interesting and newsworthy phenomenon", not 
as an example of the delusional effects of religious fervour. Never as 
that.

Last week's Sunday Telegraph TV Guide has a block ad for three 
different "psychics". Jenny Angel's Psychics describe themselves as 
"Accurate and genuine psychics", a claim that must breach the standards of 
truth in advertising, surely.

On the other hand, they do carry the ultimate accolade of quality, "As Seen 
On TV".

Deborah Gray provides "Psychic Readings and Lucky Charms": "Bring love, 
wealth and success into your life".

Mystic Meg, on the other hand, will give you a live consultation on 
your love life, your money, your health, your career and just about 
anything else that might be making you feel uneasy about your life.

These predatory sharks, and the many others like them, are preying on the 
dissatisfaction, disillusion, frustration and fear of all those people for 
whom the reality of life under capitalism is not the same as the illusion 
they have been taught to expect, and illusion they will never achieve.

The late astronomer Carl Sagan, a fervent campaigner for science over 
obscurantism, pointed out some years ago how very few daily newspapers 
carried a science column; but they all carried a horoscope — some 
even had two!

He might also have mentioned how the media, in the interests of boosting 
circulation (which they equate with "reporting the news"), will run with 
any sensation that is current no matter how unlikely or unsubstantiated.

Whether it's the Yeti, Bigfoot or lions and tigers roaming England or 
Victoria, papers and TV channels will devote copious space to it, space 
whose chief characteristic is the willing suspension of disbelief.

Stirring up fear about lions and panthers in the Australian bush is far 
more important than pointing out how unlikely it would be for such a 
creature to escape detection for even a brief time. Scepticism will not 
sell papers, is the argument.

On Monday, June 21, Channel Nine, Australia's most watched TV channel, had 
an evening line-up of Sale Of The Century, Friends, 
Jesse, Veronica's Closet and Suddenly Susan. After 
that, the station went serious for an hour with The Extraordinary.

This week's episode took at face value "examples" of what is clearly a 
modern US urban myth (and surely it could only come from such a 
mixed up place as the USA): spontaneous human combustion.

Only the country that gave us space aliens secreted away by the government 
could come up with something as truly bizarre as spontaneous human 
combustion.

The point is that this nonsense is presented seriously, with no 
trace of shame or embarrassment at the crime that is being perpetrated on 
the poor innocent viewer. "Let the viewer beware" seems to be the motto. If 
we can get away with it, then what's your beef?

In a society where pandering to ignorance is not only tolerated but 
encouraged as good business, is it any wonder that a gullible person will 
be sucked into an exorcism and into killing her son in the course of it? 
But is she the one who should be charged with a crime?