MEDIUM RARE
How do opinion surveys like those that pop up every election season compare with astrology, feng shui, and plain guesswork?
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, a leading contender in the presidential polls, was all set to file his certificate of candidacy on Oct. 1 when someone in his camp reminded him that it might be best to wait for an auspicious date, Oct. 4, feast day of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. Exactly what he did.
Politicians may not stand out as pious men of faith but they’re among the most superstitious people you’ll ever meet. As one explained, “I need all the help I can get.” They are loyal to a lucky color and number, a favorite shirt that will bring them favorable results during or after an important event. They go to church, as Ping Lacson and Tito Sotto did, before announcing their partnership.
Surveys are likewise a matter of faith, as with believing in feng shui and astrology. The mystical sciences operate on calculating how earthly and cosmic elements are aligned in harmony with nature, planetary movements, and humanity. Whereas date and time of birth of the querent (subject) are important to the masters in interpreting data, earth-bound market researchers use survey questions and answers to produce a sketch of where things stand. Surveys dwell in numbers, what they call statistical probabilities. Feng shui and astrology work on birth charts as a basis to calculate where destiny leads.
Which means that surveys and charts are not infallible. Prayers are not always answered.
In ancient times when emperors and kings ruled the world, astrologers were treated like VIPs, accorded the same honors and respect as a bishop would be in today’s Malacañang. Among the thousands of books I have tasted and pored over since my early teens, one of the oldest contains an opening line on the first page of a fictionalized account of China’s first empress that has always stayed with me: “The astrologers were appalled.” (Neither an astrologer nor empress am I, so I don’t understand the fixation with those four words.)
The empress was so ruthless she killed her own son to ascend the throne – this part is history, not fiction -- fulfilling the astrologers’ reading of her chart.