Has a black magic spell been cast on the Turkish economy? Black magic, causality, and Kant...

According to Kant, causality is one of the fundamental principles that allow us to understand the world of phenomena and is considered one of the categorical structures of the mind. We establish a precise connection between the phenomena of nature through causes; even if we do not directly experience these causal relationships, our mind organizes these relationships, and thus we experience the world in a meaningful way. In this sense, causality is a mental structure that enables us to establish logical connections between events.

For connections to be established with rational logic, the individual must place generally accepted methods of acquiring rational knowledge at the center of their own cognitive function as a principle. However, it should be noted that the primitive human brain here does not need the connection established between phenomena to be rational, but rather that this connection be established within a cause-and-effect relationship.

'The water in the glass has spilled - Someone must have bumped into it.'

'The water in the glass has spilled - My vow has been accepted, so the saints must have drunk the water I left for them.'

There is causality in both sentences. This is why the human brain, which works according to the principle of causality, accompanies us as a vital mechanism in all circumstances, regardless of the person's way of thinking or whether that person is rational.

The fact that results for which we do not know the cause psychologically disturb us tends to soothe our minds with a cause-and-effect relationship. Because humans, who have faced the danger of death at every moment in a universe full of unknowns for many long years, come from a primitive past; therefore, connecting a complex event whose cause they do not understand to the nearest result makes them feel safe.

The mental resistance we show to the answers that are closest to us, which are comforting but irrational, is a measure of our level of development and how rationally we are able to live life.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT THAT BLACK MAGIC MIGHT AFFECT THE ECONOMY?

Considering the technological revolution we are in, the distances we have covered on the path to development, and the modern constitutions we have made, can we say that we are proud of ourselves as pure, clean world citizens, free from superstitions and myths?

Unfortunately, the picture is not as bright as it appears from afar. When our primitive brain encounters questions it cannot answer, it easily falls into irrational traps. In places where education and instruction are lacking, the link between our fears and our cultural mystical patterns is established very quickly. In societies where this link is easily formed without hitting the barrier of rationality, black magic, superstitions, myths, amulets, and fortune-telling become inevitable.

It is, of course, impossible to establish trust among people who believe that they can be truly harmed by someone else through magic. When individual distrust permeates community life, commercial ties based on trust, and therefore the country's economy, become one of the areas most affected by this situation.

A large-scale study conducted by Boris Gershman, a development economics expert at American University in Washington D.C., clearly shows the connection between magic and the economy. Gershman, who has studied the effects of beliefs such as witchcraft, black magic, and the evil eye on human behavior for many years, published his work in 19 sub-Saharan African countries in the Journal of Development Economics in 2016. The results of the study, which examines the effects of superstitions and black magic on social capital, are striking. According to the results obtained by Gershman, the higher the adherence to superstitions in a society, the more difficult it is for that society to develop and change. Because where distrust is high, it is impossible for solidarity and social unity to form.

40% OF THE WORLD BELIEVES IN MAGIC

Although ethnographic studies have been conducted on topics such as magic, superstitions, and the evil eye, there has been no statistical data on this subject at a global level until now. Gershman examines the effects of magic on social capital in the modern world in a study conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC) between 2007 and 2018 among 140,000 people in 95 countries.

The questions in the survey are as follows:

• Do you believe in the evil eye?
  
  
• Do you believe that some people can affect you with their evil gaze, curse you, or harm you with magical words?

The figures show that 40% of people around the world believe in magic. However, when these figures are evaluated by country, the fluctuations are very high. For example, while 90% of the public in Indonesia believes in magic, these figures, while not disappearing in Western countries, experience a sharp decline; while only 9% of the public in Sweden and Denmark believe in magic, this figure reaches 13% in Germany.

BLACK MAGIC POISONS THE ECONOMY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Although the belief in witchcraft is encountered in every stratum of society, this situation depends on the education level of individuals with a 7% probability; the rate of belief in magic and the evil eye among people with low education levels is higher than among the educated. Of course, religion is also a very important factor. People who believe in the reality of mystical beings do not have difficulty believing that they can be truly harmed by jinn, black magic, the evil eye, and similar causes.

According to Gershman's research results, the rate of belief in black magic is at much higher levels in societies where government crises are frequently experienced, where the public does not believe in the protective power of the police, where trust in the idea that justice works the same for everyone is shaken, and where economic insecurity prevails. People who do not feel safe try to solve the individual helplessness they experience by resorting to black magic, even if it is not rational.

Although there are isolated studies in this field in Turkey, it is not really possible to come across large-scale statistics. However, even when you look at the titles of magic spells on YouTube channels, the categories of magic that know no bounds in creativity give clues about which areas the society suffers from the most.

WHICH MAGIC MIGHT HAVE BEEN INTENDED FOR WHICH MINISTRY?

Headache and toothache spells, I think, are a sign of distrust in health services. A spell to finish a doctoral thesis quickly or a spell to pass the university entrance exam must be a satirical reference to the Ministry of National Education. A spell to blind the judge in court seems to point to the justice system. The armor spell is, I think, the most dangerous one; it is believed that the armor amulet will protect the person from bullets, let's hope the wearer is not overly devout.

The richest magic literature is in the field of finance; spells such as finding money on the ground, increasing fortune, increasing sustenance, and bringing back a stolen bracelet seem to make a small touch on the economic crisis in the country. Let's not be surprised if we soon come across a spell to change the cryptocurrency exchange, an amulet to lower individual exchange rates, blessed water to tie the landlord's tongue, or blessed rice sold in markets to find discount coupons.

The best way to deal with darkness is to make a comedy of the darkness, but in an environment where even cartoons cannot laugh freely, the picture of our country is not bright at all. When we look from a rational window, there are meaningless fears at the root of superstitions. However, these fears are not meaningless for the people who believe in them. The person shapes their entire world and emotions within this belief pattern. This lifestyle, which has fear at its core, shapes the person's choices and behaviors on the axis of fear.

In other words, a character emerges that is far from creativity, afraid of innovation, and prevents going outside of certain patterns with their own obsessive fixations. Within all these wrong behavioral patterns, the side that affects the economy is the sense of trust. People who do not trust each other in society mean firms that do not trust each other. Distrust is the biggest obstacle to innovations and entrepreneurial culture. The culture of fear in the economy constantly hinders business people who need to take risks to develop. All these obstacles come together and affect the development of the national economy as a whole.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BREAK THE BLACK MAGIC OVER THE COUNTRY?

The solution is, of course, available; young people who are exposed to mystical and irrational patterns due to the influence of family culture during their childhood years need to be given enough infrastructure during their university education to be rational in their daily lives. There should be no question marks left in the minds of children graduating from university, such as black magic, fortune-telling, horoscopes, tarot cards, fear of the evil eye, fear of jinn, or fear of magic.

Lessons from all necessary Enlightenment philosophers, starting with Immanuel Kant, and recent philosophers should be given to young people as basic education. In countries like Turkey, there are spiritual masters, amulet writers, magicians, and fortune-tellers to whom people from all segments of the country resort in different dimensions, from headaches to relationships, from psychological problems to economic difficulties. This shows that university education does not provide young people with the knowledge to live a rational life. If we want to get rid of an irrational country model where tarot cards and coffee fortune-telling are included in the daily routine, a generation must be raised that does not turn their cup over after drinking their coffee; otherwise, generations will follow generations in the dark corridors of the Middle Ages. And we will never be able to get rid of being a third-world country.