Monday, September 2, 2013

Con Men and Placebo Effect: Azha Ram the Rascal


Why are folks from subcontinent such twerps? May be they are plain lazy waiting for a windfall or simply conned. Why are we not in peace with the way the world runs, after all it is not some cryptic rocket science. It generally rewards hard work but there are some people who are disproportionately rewarded for no work or punished even for hard work but that is aberration rather than the rule. It is not some act of kindness or retribution from the almighty God but random occurrence. Think of this; you have a bunch of marbles in your hand which you toss in a pit like in a game children play. Most will scatter but a few marbles will necessarily drop into the pit. Are these lucky/unlucky marbles?

Let us reconcile to the fact that a large majority will be rewarded according to their efforts but a small fraction will be disproportionately rewarded or punished. Quirk of our nature is such that common occurrence is ignored but the odd ones glows like beacons in dark night. We notice these aberrations and ignore vast majority going about their regular humdrum life. Here comes the conman in the garb of a saint and convinces you that God is a sorcerer whose pleasure is tied down to bizarre acts and odd numbers. What is magical about ‘five namaaz’, three , seven parikrama or hundred and one chants or fasting and depriving oneself of comfort to please these deities! These saints thrive on placebo effect. Roughly a quarter of patients given dud /blank pills and told that this may improve their condition actually benefit from these blank pills. Similarly a quarter of the  those flocking these saints actually a get a high due to placebo effect, but it has no contribution coming from the God men. While majority not gaining from the them is forgotten these jerks are selectively exhibited.

Decide for yourself …… If you believe in God, won’t helping a blind man cross the street will be weightier than a life time of temple visits, or namaazs?     


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