 Psychologically Speaking
with Stewart Hase
Howling at the Moon
It's no wonder the moon had mystical significance for ancient peoples. The other week it was huge and dominant in the sky for nights on end. You could almost count the hairs on your palm such was the intensity of light. But it's not just its awesome presence that effects us.
Lots of people tell me that they don't sleep too well on full moons and it's not that they are looking for witches on broomsticks to cause a partial eclipse. They just get ‘antsy'.
I have been aware for years that I should avoid participating in sporting events when there is a full moon. The ball just never hits the middle of the club.
Now you might say that it might be more the egg than the chicken in play here in that there is an expectancy effect. Up comes the moon and we expect certain things to go awry. And you may be right. But ask nurses and police, for example, they will tell you that strange things happen on a full moon.
While howling at the moon the other evening it occurred to me that there is a modern equivalent. It's the stockmarket. This relatively new phenomenon, unknown to the Druids, has similar effects on people to the big orb in the midnight sky. If it wanes we see people jumping off buildings, gnashing teeth, going through some strange ritual only known to the rich called bankruptcy. People who don't own shares aren't wealthy enough to go bankrupt – we're just broke all of the time.
Waning of the stockmarket also affects effective decision making among politicians and business owners who either sell off assets or sack people to increase or maintain profit. This doesn't take much imagination, which is probably the effect of the stockmarket phenomenon. Rightsizing, downsizing, selling off the farm, it's all the same thing – a sort of depressive and punitive syndrome.
And the waxing of the stockmarket? It also affects behaviour by releasing a free spirit that is at ease with consuming more and more. Politicians respond by encouraging this interesting almost hypomanic interest in owning just about anything. Buy, buy, buy!
Well at least its good to know that we have an explanation for the strange behaviours and decision making of the rich and/or powerful. I was worried that they actually did these things out of their own volition. Phew!
|
