Tradition and Fortune Telling

Tradition. The word makes one think of happy things: lion dances, stories told by grandma and little red packets of money.


Yet tradition has its darker side as well. Binding the feet of women to the point of deformity was once a hallowed Chinese tradition as well. Sacrificing human victims to make the sun rise was a sacred ritual of the Aztecs, while arranged marriages were the tradition in most parts of the world in the past, and even today in some places.

Are these traditions good? I doubt any one of us would nod.

Even today, traditions cause us trouble. One tradition I particularly dislike is that of fortune telling. If fortune tellers confine themselves to innocuous statements like "Pisces will find love this month" or "You will grow up to be a great person", I could overlook it. Yet some fortune tellers insist on invoking my ire. At least two of my friends have been told by fortune tellers "You may have problems with this partner of yours". Then they come to me worrying about their compatibility with their boyfriends and imagining problems from nowhere.

Now tell me, if they broke up because of this worry, because they magnify small faults due to this "prophecy", would that signify the prescience of the fortune teller? Or would it be his fault for inducing fear where none existed?

I tend to lean towards the latter interpretation.

Because of this, I highly dislike fortune tellers who make such statements. And there is no use in covering it up with the cloak of "tradition", as that cloak has shielded enough ugliness in the past.

Conning people with some mumbo-jumbo is easy. Just say things like "You are often a friendly and outgoing person, but you have times when you prefer solitude." Or "This month there will be opportunities for you, but also challenges. You will meet new people who may charm you." Vague, vague statements.

If a fortune teller could give me a lottery number that won I would be impressed. However so far I have never heard of that. Praying to your ancestors would be more effective I gather.

And if one more person makes an "end of the world" prediction, I will do my best to resist the temptation of looking for them and throwing them off a cliff.