Are we rushing back to the Middle Ages?

By Rob Gowland

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 rumors 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 skeptical. 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 New South Wales convince themselves they can see the Virgin Mary in some chipped paint 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 fervor. 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. Skepticism 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 U.S. 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 woman 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?