Editorial The Island

February 1, 2017, 8:26 pm
Fortunetellers’ fortunes are tied to those of their political masters and not to stars. This has been the case throughout human history. Haruspices, who pretended to be able to predict future for Roman emperors by looking at the insides of sacrificed animals and oracles who specialised in communicating with gods in glossolalia or some unknown language in ancient Greece attained the status of demigods. None of those seers survived the fall of their political masters. The same holds true for the modern era of human civilisation.

Humans are not free from atavistic fears in spite of their evolution which has reached a very advanced stage. Their rulers are in a far worse predicament; with their minds weakened by a gnawing sense of insecurity which causes them to see around them more devils than vast hell can hold, they seek solace in witchcraft and the occult, especially in the developing world. There have been apocryphal stories of some Sri Lankan leaders who had themselves bathed in milk at the crack of dawn and got into sacks of gingerly in the buff at the behest of their palace astrologers to ward off the malefic effects of some planetary combinations.

Superstition is said to be the religion of the feeble mind. Voltaire it is who has rightly said: “Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy––the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.” Astrologers get close to rulers and go places thanks to the insecurities which weigh down on the heads that wear crowns and make them slaves to the aforesaid two mad daughters—superstition and astrology.

This country has had its share of feeble minds at the levers of power and that may explain why some astrologers have become so wealthy and influential. Most political leaders’ wrists bear testimony to their superstitious beliefs; with many charmed threads of different hues wound around them, they look as ugly as the telephone posts disfigured by layers of old ropes once used to hang banners. Besides, they take pride in sporting extra-large gold rings studded with various gems on several fingers in a bid to neutralise the perceived adverse planetary effects. Some of them even carry with them astrologically determined, small gold objects embellished with precious stones, seeking divine protection.

Star gazers are usually circumspect and care to hedge their bets by making several vague predictions at a time, but there have been instances where some of them threw caution to the winds and got into hot water as a result. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s palace seer is now in the wilderness as his bold predictions went wrong and his boss lost power. Other astrologers who threw in their lot with Rajapaksa have also got into trouble.

An astrologer who made some malicious predictions about incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena and circulated them via the Internet has been arrested and remanded. It is a pity that he could not foresee trouble! We thought much publicised predictions that went wrong were good enough punishment for any astrologer and there was no need for any other punitive action. But, the champions of ‘compassionate governance’—whatever that means—are convinced otherwise.

It is baffling why President Srisena, who pardoned a terrorist who conspired to kill him, has not shown any mercy to the astrologer in trouble. Is it that he considers a false prediction that he will lose power or some harm will befall him is a more serious offence than an assassination plot? Never mind astrologers! Even those who caused massive losses to the state coffers, amounting to billions of rupees, through bond scams and were held responsible by Parliament for that criminal offence have not been arrested for interrogation. They are seen in the exalted company of their political masters. Is making false predictions a far more serious crime than abusing public funds?

Some crooks seem to have all the luck! Did we hear someone say they were beneficiaries of their masters’ raja yoga?