Superstitions
Jul. 13th, 2009 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerI caught part of a "Cool Japan" TV show this morning. This has a panel of foreigners, who are looking at various Japanese trends or news events. In this case, they had interviewers in Tokyo in the streets asking Japanese young women -- teenagers -- how they make wishes come true. They dug in their purses and started showing off... candy wrappers with 10 pictures? Train tickets with matching first and last numbers -- 9549? Or on a cell phone, certain graphics and their colors apparently have mystical interpretations. If you get a red one, you're going to get a new boyfriend?
During the panel discussion, a British man declared that children might believe that kind of thing, but adults certainly don't have such superstitions. No one seemed to feel like arguing with that, but I'm not so sure. How many people happily buy lottery tickets at the store that has had more winners, because you're more likely to win there? Or listen to certain stock market advisors, because some people got rich listening to them? Hasty generalization, along with other fallacies, certainly give us a disposition to creating superstitions. And once you start practicing, it can be difficult to disprove. Since I started wearing a garlic necklace, I haven't seen any vampires -- so I better keep wearing it, right?
I got to thinking about the temple sticks here in Japan. At many temples, you pick up a round case -- like a piece of bamboo with a bottom and a top. There is a small hole in the top. You shake this and tilt it until a single stick falls out. The number or symbol on the end of this stick is a fortune -- pick up your fortune from the nearby case and read it. Then, if you don't like the fortune, fold it into a thin strip and tie it on a nearby tree -- there's usually a bunch of other fortunes that have been tied up too.
The interesting thing is that while this is relatively random, people like the feeling of influence or control. I shook the case -- so what falls out is my fortune.
So much of our lives is really not under our control. National economies, grand disasters, even the fickleness of personal relationships, are not really something that we can simply decide and control. Still, any influence is better than none, right? So there's a temptation to look for things that might improve the odds, things that might let us shake the case.
And I'm not sure that it makes any sense to criticize such superstitions. After all, if someone carries around a lucky ticket, or a lucky rabbit's foot, and it makes them feel more empowered, more in control of their lives, what's the harm?
During the panel discussion, a British man declared that children might believe that kind of thing, but adults certainly don't have such superstitions. No one seemed to feel like arguing with that, but I'm not so sure. How many people happily buy lottery tickets at the store that has had more winners, because you're more likely to win there? Or listen to certain stock market advisors, because some people got rich listening to them? Hasty generalization, along with other fallacies, certainly give us a disposition to creating superstitions. And once you start practicing, it can be difficult to disprove. Since I started wearing a garlic necklace, I haven't seen any vampires -- so I better keep wearing it, right?
I got to thinking about the temple sticks here in Japan. At many temples, you pick up a round case -- like a piece of bamboo with a bottom and a top. There is a small hole in the top. You shake this and tilt it until a single stick falls out. The number or symbol on the end of this stick is a fortune -- pick up your fortune from the nearby case and read it. Then, if you don't like the fortune, fold it into a thin strip and tie it on a nearby tree -- there's usually a bunch of other fortunes that have been tied up too.
The interesting thing is that while this is relatively random, people like the feeling of influence or control. I shook the case -- so what falls out is my fortune.
So much of our lives is really not under our control. National economies, grand disasters, even the fickleness of personal relationships, are not really something that we can simply decide and control. Still, any influence is better than none, right? So there's a temptation to look for things that might improve the odds, things that might let us shake the case.
And I'm not sure that it makes any sense to criticize such superstitions. After all, if someone carries around a lucky ticket, or a lucky rabbit's foot, and it makes them feel more empowered, more in control of their lives, what's the harm?
