The superstitions in public libraries

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The superstitions in public libraries:alive and well?Miroslaw Kruka

a Miroslaw Kruk undertook his studies in librarianship at theDepartment of Librarianship, Archives and Records at MonashUniversity. He works as an information analyst at Abix, a Melbourne-based provider of business information. His e-mail address isPublished online: 28 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Miroslaw Kruk (2001) The superstitions in public libraries: alive and well?, TheAustralian Library Journal, 50:4, 349-363, DOI: 10.1080/00049670.2001.10755968

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2001.10755968

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The superstitions in public libraries: alive and well?

'superstition, n false worship or religion; an ignorant and irrational belief in supernatural agency, omens, divination, sorcery, etc; a deep-rooted but unfounded general belief; a rite or practice proceedingf ram superstitious belief or fear [obs}'

Social reformers in the nineteenth century thought that superstitions would gradually die out. Institutions of formal education, such as schools and universities, promoted progress through spreading positivistic and utilitarian ideas. Institutions of informal education, including public libraries and the press, spread the same ideas. The edifice of civilisation was firmly supported by three pillars: the state, science and institutionalised religion. At the beginning of the twenty first century, the social landscape has greatly changed. Science is treated with suspicion, and the state and religion have been weakened. Superstitions are alive and well, and they have even found their way to public libraries. Is the library's noble goal of the dissemination of knowledge in danger of being replaced by the diffusion of falsehood?

Manuscript received April 2001

This a refereed article

'One would only imagine, in this day of widespread enlightenment and education. that it would not be necessary to debunk beliefs based on magic and superstition. Yet, accept­ance of astrology pervades modem society. We are especially disturbed by uncritical dis­semination of astrological charts, forecasts and horoscopes ... This can only contribute to the growth of irrationalism and obscurantism.' A statement of 192 scientists, including 19 Nobel P1ize winners; 1975

'When we run over libraries ... what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any \'Olume: of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance: let us ask, does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.' David Hume An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

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Circumstantial evidence seems to

indicate that a growing number of

people in industrialised

countries resort to superstitions while in

other parts of the world superstitions

have never been seriously

challenged ...

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DE DICTIONARY DESCRIBES SUPERSTITION AS AN IRRATIONAL BELIEF USUALLY FOUNDED on

gnorance or fear (from Latin superstitio - dread of the supernatural). To some egree, we are all superstitious. Most people would readily admit that they do ot like the number 13, consider a broken mirror to be a bad omen and feel

uneasy when the black cat crosses their path: but they would not take these signs of bad luck too seriously. The same people would laugh if someone tried to convince them that there was indeed a causal link between the black cat and an imminent accident.

It is exciting to think that the world is a mysterious place but in everyday life we know from experience that the only reasonable strategy for living is to behave rationally.

It has not always been like that. A rational attitude to the world amongst the wider population is a relatively new trend with its beginnings in the eighteenth century. Fol­lowing the scientific revolution, with Newtonian physics at its centre, European socie­ties changed dramatically. The gradual process of abandoning myths and superstitions accelerated. The Enlightenment waged war against superstition, and the war was al­most won in the following century. With the imposition of free, obligatory and secular education throughout the nineteenth century there was no reason to doubt that the total disappearance of superstitions was only a matter of time.

At the end of the nineteenth century. editors of the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1 did not have any doubt that the final victory of the rational mind was close. The so-called science' of astrology was announced 'dead and buried'. It was no longer necessary to protest against an 'error' of astrology; pseudo-sciences belonged to the past and could only be examined as historical phenomena. In civilised societies, there was no room for such illusions. Superstitions were becoming harmless, surviving only in everyday language as remnants from pre-scientific times.

The ninth edition of Britannica was a monument to scientism and positivism. It exemplified unbounded faith in the power of human reason and in the material and intellectual progress of humanity- in truth, limited to some 'historic' nations or 'races' - through the application of science.

One hundred years later, the editors of the twentieth edition of the same encyclope­dia2 are less judgmental. It is true that in the article on astrology its author writes that 'the art' is perceived in our times as pseudo-science or superstition, and 'generally ... regarded as devoid of intellectual value'.

However, people who take superstitions seriously are not now labelled as ignorant. The article on superstition describes the matter in neutral terms. Superstition is said to be 'an ambiguous word', implying superiority in those who use it. The author of the article asserts that 'one persons religion is another ones superstition'.

The twentieth edition of the encyclopedia, unlike the ninth, does not treat science as a panacea for humanitys ills. The problem of superstitions is relativised. Superstitions are not condemned outright but described with detachment and non-commitment.

Circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that a growing number of people in in­dustrialised countries resort to superstitions while in other parts of the world supersti­tions have never been seriously challenged.

In a vacuum created by the absence of religion in their lives, people find solace in seeking unity with mystical forces allegedly penetrating the universe. Neither estab-

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lished religions nor sciences, medicine in particular, are found to be satisfying. In North America, Europe and Australia, old pre-Christian rites are being revived.

In Atlas of the New Age3, the authors boast that the 'New Age', a collective name given

to various superstitions, began as an eccentric movement in the 1960s but 'has grown into a powerful influence on mainstream society throughout the world'.

How significant is this shift in attitude to superstitions? Should our social institu­tions, including public libraries, engage on either side of the polemic? And, finally, should books on superstitions be present on library shelves? The matter is important but little discussed in library circles. Meanwhile, more books on Nostradamus, witch­craft, feng shui and numerology are being added to already sizeable sections of library collections with books on what is called, euphemistically, popular psychology and al­ternative medicine.

The public is owed an explanation: what is the role of the library in modern society? Are there any absolute standards by which books are to be judged? Should collection policies reflect the views and needs of all groups of the community? Is the librarys aim to educate the public or simply to react to shifting wants of library users? Should the original model of the public library as a civilising force be replaced by a purely demo­cratic institution?

At the beginning of the new century, it is not easy to decide whether we should judge the twentieth century as a period of progress or regress in the fight against igno­rance. The brave new world of material abundance for everyone and the vision of rational and enlightened society prophesied by nineteenth century reformers, has not materialised. Despite enormous material and social progress superstitions have not dis­appeared.

Science is mistrusted and seems to be on the retreat, attacked from outside by envi­ronmentalists and from within by some philosophers and sociologists. The renaissance of superstitions in popular culture is accompanied by attempts to restore superstitions to their former glory. Science is increasingly seen as a cultural phenomenon only differ­ent but not better or worse than other modes of interaction with reality. Science and scientists are often being criticised, not entirely without reason, for reductionism, moral indifference and purposelessness.

Libraries and last men The presence of superstitious books on library shelves shows that the wave of irration­alism has not bypassed public libraries. By definition, no social institution can place itself outside of society. Therefore, public libraries react to pressure exerted by new generations of librarians and readers; they do not exist in a cultural vacuum.

In the nineteenth century, libraries were undoubtedly a product of that centurys progressivism. They were intended to be instrumental in the moral and intellectual elevation of the masses. People were believed to be rational agents. Social reformers thought that the appalling conditions in which the majority of society lived prevented individuals from realising their full potential. People were thought to be products of their environment. It was a widely shared belief that improvement in living conditions would lead to the moral elevation of the whole society.

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Public libraries were to be instrumental in this process. Establishing libraries was a noble attempt to give people means of changing their lives for the better. However, not everyone shared this optimistic view of humanity. Many sceptics ridiculed this vision of paradise on earth built on material progress and powered by scientific discoveries and social co-operation.

In Nietzsche!:; Thus spoke Zarathustra4 the philosopher comes down from the moun­tains after years spent in solitude. Zarathustra wants to teach people how to be super­men (to avoid unfortunate associations with the 'Ubermensch' of Nazis, this term is sometimes translated as an 'overman' instead of a 'superman'). But his listeners prefer to be last men, who discovered happiness by living like a herd of animals caring only about full stomachs and little everyday pleasures:

The eanh hath then become small, and on it there hoppeth the last man who maketh everything small. His species is ineradicable like that of the ground-flea; the last man liveth longest. 'We have discovered happiness' - say the last men, and blink thereby They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth ones neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth ... One still worketh, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one. They have their little pleasures for the day. and their little pleasures for the night, but they have a regard for health. 'We have discovered happiness,' - say the last men, and blink thereby One no longer becometh poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wanteth to rule? Who still wanteth to obey? Both are too burdensome. No shepherd, and one herd! Everyone wanteth the same; everyone is equal: he who hath other sentiments goeth voluntarily into the madhouse.

Has the prophesy of Nietzsche found its fulfilment in our society? Are we aspiring supermen or last men? What is the spirit of our times? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our civilisation?

Some philosophers and social commentators believe that we live in societies of last men. They think that, to the dismay of well-meaning reformers, material progress did not produce the new, 'improved' man but rather his caricature. AD Hope had no doubts that he lived among last men (at least in 1939 when he wrote Australia5

; he later dis­tanced himself from his own poem saying that it 'follows me like a bad smell>6. He saw last, or ultimate, men in his own countrymen. Australia was for Hope a country:

Without songs, architecture, history ...

The river of her immense stupidity

Floods her monotonous tribes from Cairns to Penh.

In them at last the ultimate men arrive

Whose boast is not: 'We live' but 'we survive',

A type who will inhabit the dying eanh

The growing interest in superstitions was an ominous sign for Hope:

I have been observing the world for about half a century and during that time it seems to me that something rather alarming has been happening: a progressive and, I fear, acceler­ating loss of faith in reason which leads in tum to active contempt for rational thought and reasonable behaviour and a cultivation of perverse in its place ... a growing anti­intellectual movement in our time which manifests itself in many ways but panicularly in a contempt for the past in history, in art in society and even in science ... Dying pieces of nonsense like astrology, numerology, black magic and witchcraft, which one would ex­pect to wither with the increase of knowledge and education, have gained a new lease of

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life ... It is as though people were no longer able to tell the rational from the absurd because they do not want to. They prefer nonsense to sense ... The real crisis of this age is ... a growing tendency to retreat now to barbarism .. .'

Superstitions in libraries If Hope is right is his diagnosis of the modem social malaise this does not augur well for libraries. In times of 'barbarism', the public library has little chance to be seen as a continuation of the nineteenth century institution with its vision of social amelioration through self-education. Maybe an entirely different model of the library is emerging? The presence of superstitious books seems to indicate that the vision of the library as an educational institution has been abandoned. If pessimists are right we may be witness­ing an emergence of the public library for last men.

Such a bold assertion can be supported by evidence from library catalogues. Two areas in non-fiction collection are especially prone to this invasion of unreason - sec­tions on psychology and medicine. The trend towards filling library shelves with 'dying pieces of nonsense' can be quantified. The numbers of books on selected subjects in some Victorian public libraries speak for themselves:

Dandenong Casey Glen Eira Stonington Whitehorse Cardinia Manningham

Fengshui 111 123 43 50 78

Aromatherapy 78 89 49 52 63

Palmistry 41 45 9 25 47

Astrology 185 220 79 99 174

Ayurveda 35 24 16 27 13

Interpretation of dreams 63 44 12 65 35

Nostradamus 42 33 10 17 23

Witchcraft 47 74 51 42 69

(based on a search of on-line catalogues 22 December 2000)

These are not the only superstitions readers may become familiar with in our public libraries. People are offered books on many other superstitions and pseudo-sciences.

The presence of superstitious books in public libraries is a sign of a fundamental shift in their role. The reader has no guarantee that books in the library will make him wiser or more knowledgeable. His common sense might be assaulted. Readers who respect public libraries and assume that libraries are still 'temples of knowledge' may be shocked to find there books propagating the most bizarre ideas.

Consider one example from the book Feng Shui for success and happiness by Richard Webster 8

Round objects ... are related to money ... Consequently, a round or oval dining table is more likely to attract wealth than an oblong or square one.

It seems that such a statement could only be dismissed with a smile. Why should there be a causal link between the shape of a table and someones financial situation? Can money find some objects more attractive than other ones? For this to occur, there must have existed some mysterious force of attraction, presumably Jeng shui. Common sense and the most basic everyday experience must lead to the conclusion that the above statement is absurd. Equally convincing would be a conjecture that that it was

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square tables that attracted wealth. Some evidence has to be provided for us to decide whether a statement is related to observable reality and Webster fails to do this. With­out answers to such questions as 'how', 'why', 'how often' and 'under what conditions' the conjecture about the attractive power of round tables exercised on money is a mere unjustified belief of one individual, the author.

Editorial standards It is not only the content of superstitious material that may raise objections. It is not unreasonable for library users to expect that books available in public libraries should meet cenain editorial standards. However, the inherent nature of the material makes responsible editing impossible. The publishers of books on witchcraft and palmistry may be motivated by the desire for financial gain and might thus disregard the basic obligations of the editor.

A case study The case of one of the more popular titles with superstitious content in Victorian public libraries, a dictionary of dreams, is illuminating; it has a Protean ability to appear under various titles and in different forms. 10,000 dreams interpreted: a complete guide to the meaning of your dreams was published by Lothian9

, without the name of the author or the date of first publication given. The book is described on the cover as 'a comprehen­sive and enthralling study of your dreams'. Some ankles such as 'Negro' which appear in other editions, have been omitted, perhaps to avoid offending some readers and the preface has been truncated, and the reader who wants to know when the book was written and by whom has no other choice but to become a detective.

When comparing this edition with those published by other publishers, interesting observations can be made. Herron Publications Pty Ltd published it under the title The encyclopedia of dreams: a comprehensive study of dreams 10, again without authorship or the date of original publication, but including the offending 'Negro'.

Inquisitive readers of the encyclopedia have to analyse the text to try to find out when the book was written and they may discover that the author has a didactic, even propagandistic intent. Young women are warned not to have indecent dreams, and are threatened that to dream of committing adultery will result in a loss of affection on the pan of the husband: they are advised to 'dream that you have successfully resisted any temptation. To yield is bad'; for men, choosing 'high ideals' will serve as a shield against 'lascivious dreams'. It is desirable to dream about the Bible. Dreaming about holding baby Jesus in ones arms will bring 'many peaceful days, full of wealth of knowledge, abundant with joy and content'.

In this dream world some religious and ethnic groups are considered dangerous: if you dream about gipsies, you may be sure that valuable propeny will be stolen from you. Jews are linked to 'untiring ambition ... longing after wealth and high position'. A woman dreaming about a Jew 'will take flattery for truth' while man dreaming about a Jewess looks for 'voluptuousness and easy comfon'. Negroes are diny and dreaming about them may bring sickness. Asians must live in misery for 'no material fonune will follow' a dream about going to Asia.

Although the author of the encyclopedia advises readers to have 'decent' dreams he himself seems to have a strong sexual imagination. His religious fervour, racism, xeno­phobia and prudery indicate a late Victorian mind. References to flying machines and

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electricity as new inventions and recalling the Bible as the authority in the 'science of dreams' support this guess, and what is being represented by the publishers as a con­temporary study of dreams seems, on closer examination to be a product of a Victorian hypocrite.

Readers lucky enough to borrow the same encyclopedia published by Prentice Hall 11

do not have to play the detective. At last, they are told who the author is (Gustavus Hindman Miller) and a time frame is given, although very imprecise ('written many years ago'). The publication is provided with a note saying that it was a facsimile edi­tion. Prentice Hall prudently distances itself from its own publication by saying that:

The circumstances at that time were very different from those that prevail today. Any views expressed by the author are not to be interpreted as those of the Publisher of this edition and the text should be viewed in the context of an historical document. ..

However, readers who do not check the information on the back of the title page will not be much wiser than those who read other editions of the same encyclopedia without any bibliographic information.

The encyclopedia of the occult12 by Lewis Spence is another cadaver presented as a living body of knowledge. Publishers introduce the book as a current opus, 'a compre­hensive reference work'. Its author is described as 'a leading authority on the mythology and customs of many ancient cultures' and 'a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute'. As no date of first edition of the book is provided, the reader might take statements appearing in the introduction as referring to his/her own times. Spence, 'a leading authority' on divination methods, or 'obtaining knowledge of the unknown by means of omens', urges readers to take the occult sciences seriously. They are the sci­ences of the future:

A generation ago it was the fashion to sneer at the occult sciences ... But now, the fact of ghostly appearance is proven ... gold has been manufactured ... the theory of thought transference is justified and hypnotism is utilised in ordinary medical practice ...

When is 'now' in this passage? Readers may think that it is simply now, the time of publication of the book because that is how the publisher presents the book to them. Again some detective work is needed to discover a reference made in the introduction, pointing to an article published in the Occult Review in September 1919. The book was therefore written some time before this at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Commercial motivation Although many superstitious books are facsimiles of editions originally published in the heyday of the occult sciences, there is no shortage of modem writers willing to

profit from the gullibility of the public. In some cases, they combine publishing with commercial activities. Some books are little more than promotional material for their products.

In his acknowledgments to Bush flower healing,13 Ian White thanks 'Spirit for all the tremendous love, light and protection and not to mention the unseen help offered to me'. But he is also 'indebted to ... my office manager. .. and all the staff at Australian Bush Flower Essences'. White is not an ordinary businessman peddling his essences. In the past, he was only able to 'listen to the plant and its deva to determine the healing quality' but now is able to 'merge into and become a plant' and 'even merge into the mother tincture'.

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Further, he works with the soul of the plant, and with the plants permission is able to access all its knowledge and wisdom. Flowers are not just picked. A rapport with 'the spiritual devic realm is needed'. In the chapter The astrology of a flower essence', writ­ten by Kerrie Redgate, we are informed that White, Flower Essence creator, is attuned to the energies of Cosmos. Only he can hear the Cosmic clock and its celestial music.

Dr Vasant Lad, author of Ayurveda : the science of self-healing: a practical guide14 is not an ordinary writer, either. Lad, Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medical Sciences (BAMS), has a site on the internet that serves as a portal for the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although the institute was established to promote the traditional knowl­edge of ayurveda, it has a commercial division that sells its products, substances and educational courses. The website describes the magical powers of ayurveda but the magic stops where the law begins: the business has to be protected from litigation. Any liability is denied if someone hurts him/herself when taking ayurveda seriously: 'noth­ing whatsoever here is intended to diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure or prevent any dis­ease'.

Although a similar disclaimer at the back of the title page of Lads book says that 'the information herein is no way to be considered as a substitute for consultation with a duly licensed physician', diagnosis is still proposed. Examination of urine leads to the identification of such disorders as vata, pitta kapha. Vaman, or therapeutical vomiting, and it can be administered for bronchitis, cough, colds, chronic asthma, skin diseases, oedema or epilepsy The healing properties of colours, gems, stones and metals are identified and recommended.

Lad operates in a crowded field. In some public libraries, books on 'alternative' medicine predominate over those on conventional medicine. Apart from other consid­erations, librarians are faced with a moral issue if they are providing pseudo-medical information which, if acted upon, may result in disastrous consequences for the read­ers health. Some readers (or their lawyers) may hold librarians accountable if they promulgate without distinction or caution books in which irresponsible speculation might be construed 'by a reasonable man' as legitimate medical information.

To underline this point, the Encyclopedia of complementary medicine15, published by Dorling Kindersley strongly urges readers to use conventional medical practitioners and not to cease prescribed -treatment on the basis of any information contained in it. The editors state in disclaimers, placed liberally throughout the book, that 'the safety and efficacy of the therapies in this book are unproven and they may conflict with conventional treatment'. The warning here has to be taken seriously and librarians must become aware that some books in their collections can make people sick.

Libraries and civilisation It is axiomatic that books and libraries played a very important role in the development of Western civilisation. The wholesale destruction of its books has always been consid­ered a calamity of catastrophic proportions for any nation or civilisation, and indeed, there were moments in history where the fate of an entire civilisation depended on books.

One of the most dramatic of such moments in history was the decline and eventual fall of the Byzantine Empire. Although Byzantium vanished as a political entity, its culture survived in religion, art and books. Some Byzantine exiles understood well the

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importance of book collections for the survival of civilisation. Jakob Burckhardt writes in The civilisation of the renaissance in Italy16 about a Byzantine exile, Cardinal Bessarion, who wanted to preserve the spirit of the Eastern Empire. Bessarion collected 600 pagan and Christian manuscripts which the Venetian government offered to keep in the San Marco Llbrary: Bessarions intention was to wait till his motherland was liberated from infidels and to bring the soul of Byzantium, as captured in its books, back into the body of the empire so it could be restored to its former glory.

For a long time, historians maintained the view, now rejected, that the West had to wait for Greek exiles, fleeing from Constantinopole like Bessarion, to come into contact with the ancient Greek texts. All the knowledge and wisdom of ancient Greece was supposedly passed in books from a civilisation that was in mortal danger to a civilisation that was awakening after a long period of Dark Ages (that were not so dark, after all).

As Kenneth Clark told the audience of Civilisation 17, architecture, art and books

make men civilised by giving their culture a sense of permanence. Without writing, man has neither past nor future, living in the eternal present and subject to a merciless passage of time. However, civilisations are fragile, even mortal. Without the engage­ment of large numbers of people who nurture them, they may die. Western civilisation has often been in mortal danger and there were times when we managed to survive only, as Clark says, by the skin of our teeth.

Nowadays, 'civilisation' as a concept is under attack. Rousseau taught us that barbar­ians were noble savages, superior to civilised men. Romantics were strongly against comparing and judging cultures, denying that there was any hierarchy among peoples. The concept of civilisation implies the opposition of barbarians who need to be civi­lised, kept apart or subjugated. However, the 'white mans burden' or the mission of Europeans to civilise the 'inferior' people of other continents was subsequently discred­ited by revelations of atrocities and injustices committed in the name of civilisation. The crisis of Western civilisation continues, and the tension between positivist and roman­tic tendencies is even growing.

This tension is also visible in libraries. The civilising mission of books and libraries is no longer regarded as important in the face of the juggernaut of popular culture and the

vested interests of the owners of the media by which it is promulgated.

Llbrarians, lacking a clear ethical position and swayed by populist arguments are now less certain what and whose standards should be used and are reluctant to make judgements on books. It is left to readers to make a choice and evaluate their reading matter. From this perspective all books are considered equal. It is generally accepted that readers cannot be denied literature they demand even if it is trivial and vulgar ( vulgaris - belonging to the multitude) and to interfere with someones reading predi­lections would be unacceptable. Therefore, any selectiveness in collection development is becoming suspect and to advocate more discrimination when selecting books for library collections would be considered elitist or smacking of censorship.

This relativism has some worrying consequences: if there are no standards or judg­ment in book selection one logical consequence is a total democratisation and random­ness in the collections of any library, an absence of any logical or planned or intentional development, and the abrogation of the professional calling. It would be a literal reali­sation of the laws of library science proposed by Ranganathan in 1931: 'every reader his book: every book its reader'. However, the realisation of these postulates would lead to

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a library in a state of total anarchy: to satisfy every reader a logical consequence would be an invasion of books containing more and more bizarre ideas, published in haste by publishers motivated solely by the desire of fmancial gains.

The presence of superstitious books in libraries is a worrying sign: if next to a section with books on science there must be a collection of pseudo-scientific materials, and if medical books are to share the shelves with publications on 'alternative' medicine, li­brarians may be under pressure to build a collection for everyone. Books on Darwinism will have to be 'balanced' with books written by creationists: those on the Second World War would need to be supplemented by books presenting the Nazi version of events.

Trying to satisfy all readers all the time would have disastrous effects on libraries. Standards would have to abandoned, and stability of the collections would be under­mined. Librarians would be under constant pressure to provide the latest bestsellers and to replace what was out of fashion with the latest fad. A large part of the collection would be in a state of flux. The modem model of the public library which operates as a service to customers has a fatal flaw. If the customers are always right their choice of books must be respected and implemented in collection policies. Books that customers want must be provided to them regardless of their intrinsic value. However, by doing so, libraries expose themselves to the tyranny of the customer. The quality of the collec­tion must suffer in such a case even if the number of library users rises.

The dilemma is indeed serious and libraries are not alone in looking for solutions. There is a pressure exerted by powerful social forces to change other social institutions to better reflect peoples democratic aspirations. A strong trend toward democratisation of schools, universities, museums and art galleries is clearly noticeable. Schools intro­duce subjects that have little in common with learning, universities are becoming insti­tutions of vocational training, museums present trivia as artefacts to be admired and art galleries stretch the meaning of art to the limit.

Superstitions as the metaphysics of last men Could public libraries resist the pressure to please everyone? Is the current model of the library desirable or avoidable? Would it be possible to envisage an alternative vision of the library, still acceptable to readers? Do we have to resign ourselves to libraries that will have more and more superstitious books? The problem would not exist iflibrarians did not feel obliged to serve readers at any cost or if readers discriminated more in their choice of reading materials and were not interested in superstitious books. This begs a question: why do so many people want to read superstitious books? Why are people superstitious?

Rationality has always been at the centre of western civilisation since its beginnings in ancient Greece and it is puzzling why so many people are nowadays disillusioned with reason and opt for unreason. One of the possible explanations is that the loss of religious imagination in our times has had a dramatic effect on peoples perception of themselves and of the world. Religion gives man means of interpreting the world; it provides a coherent system of beliefs and answers all existential questions. Since the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, religion has been in retreat. Man lost his religion-based position of centrality in the universe and his life has since been becom­ing purposeless and meaningless.

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As astronomers moved the earth from under our feet, Man found himself insignifi­cant and lonely in an indifferent universe. Scientific discoveries could not be refuted because science quite simply and evidently worked. New theories found practical appli­cations in technology. While science had an enormous impact on the material world, it showed at the same time that mans beliefs were the mere delusions of what was only one among many species of animals. Man, along with God was dethroned and his anthropocentricism ridiculed.

Science gave people truth, religion could only offer beliefs. Brian Appleyard writes in Understanding the present: science and the soul of modem man 18 that science seeks truth, disregarding meaning and that religion seeks meaning while disregarding truth. New­ton described the universe as merely a mechanism. While for the prescientific mind the universe was an organic whole, we know after Newton that the universe is almost empty, with an occasional lump of matter here and there. One of such accidental celes­tial bodies, the Earth, is inhabited by man, himself accidental. There is no room for human values and meaning in a universe governed by physical laws. Scientific method has been used to question all human beliefs. It is true that scientific progress in hand with technology led to great improvements in the material conditions of living but at the same time it robbed people of their humanity Science was inhuman. Almost inci­dentally, it forced man to accept his accidentality and unimportance.

Many scientists came to the same conclusion as Steven Weinberg who wrote in The first three minutes: a modem view of the origin of the universe19 that 'the more the universe seems comprehensible the more it also seems pointless'. There is no salvation for man. Like Sisyphus, who had to push a stone up the hill only to see it rolling down, we have to resign ourselves to accept that all our efforts are futile. For Weinberg however, sci­ence does offer some consolation in this inhuman world:

... men and women are not content to comfon themselves with tales of gods and giants . the effon to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy ...

The split between the objective world of mathematical necessity and the subjective world of the human psyche has become almost unbearable as the emancipated mind questions everything, including itself. The promise of the Enlightenment was that man­kind would be liberated but in the end people felt that they had been robbed. The attrition of meaning and the onset of disenchantment has been well described by soci­ologists, poets and philosophers. Weber described it as Entzauberung der Welt and Simone Weil wrote about deracinement. Modem art has been penetrated by deep pessimism. We seem to be hollow men living in a waste land.

As the power of religion to give man sense and meaning diminished, some aesthetes attempted to raise art to the status of religion and indeed, paintings, music, poetry can neutralise existential anxiety and assuage the tortured ego. But art could only appeal to those who were able to decipher its message, which required certain gifts, a lot of effort and considerable education: only a relatively small section of the public reads poetry In music, classical works cannot compete with pop songs.

People needed a simpler and more spontaneous way of dealing with their existential anxiety than art and they turned to superstition: it matters little that to believe in super­stitions people have to abandon 'common sense'. Their hunger for some sort of meta-

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physics is so strong that any substitute, even the most vulgar, will find a large number of followers. The fact that superstitions cannot be verified or falsified is of no consequence. Science finds confirmation of its findings in technology. Pseudo-science has not, and cannot have, any practical application. It cannot be supported by experiments. It ig­nores evidence and is indifferent to facts. Pseudo-scientific assertions do not have to be tested. Paradoxically, this detachment from reality gives superstitions formidable ex­planatory power. Keith Thomas in Religion and the decline of magic20 writes that supersti­tions are self-containing: after acceptance of their initial premises they become immune to external argument and are therefore indestructible.

Dr Lad explains inAyurveda: the science of self-healing: a practical guide21 that ayurveda is an ancient knowledge. Its premises are legitimised not by questioning and testing but by the fact that ayurveda has been universally accepted and practiced for centuries within Indian civilisation. In contrast to science, in which there is no dogma and every­thing can be questioned, superstitions are static and immutable. Scientists are basically inductivists, while pseudo-science ignores evidence or uses it selectively General state­ments in science are not unlike working hypotheses. Other scientists are invited to scrutinise existing theories and new paradigms sooner or later replace the old ones. In contrast, pseudoscientific statements are outside of history and immune from evolution because their validity is claimed to be permanent.

Scientific statements are carefully worded, with many qualifications. Science is ori­ented towards the future. It progresses by constant revaluation of itself. Superstitions are oriented towards the past. Their ancient provenance is promoted as their strength: they also explain everything. Lad writes that ayurveda has been 'practised in India for more than 5000 years' and22 'encompasses not only science but religion and philoso­phy as well'. He advises his readers to reject or at least suspend the habits of the Western mind such as doubt, questioning, objectivity, induction, analysis and logical deduction. Ayurveda should be accepted unquestionably in its totality because it is:

... a holistic science, one in which the sum of many elements comprises its Truth; to question details before a strong overview of the whole science is acquired will prove unproductive and unsatisfactory ...

Promoters of superstitions believe that wholism is superior to reductionism. Under their banner, Man is supposedly united with the universe. Cosmic forces penetrate the whole world, including human beings, because we are one with the world. Western science is accused of separating us from the world and reducing everything to objects of cold analysis. In the eyes of modem believers, superstitions solve two problems of Western civilisation- the Cartesian separation of body and mind and the loneliness of man in Newtons indifferent universe. Like the prodigal son, the disinherited mind of modem man is reunited with the universe, after centuries of separation.

These ideas are implied or expressed explicitly in more sophisticated forms of super­stitions and their traces can also be found in the most bizarre and vulgar ones. There­fore, those who believe in witchcraft call themselves followers of Wicca and after centu­ries of persecution can at last celebrate paganism in its noble form of worshipping Nature. Similarly, Satanism is an expression of the naked will to live, not burdened by the moral and social constraints imposed by civilisation. Some environmentalist groups are attracted to pre-scientific tribal wisdom and describe Nature in mystical terms.

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People who believe in or practise superstitions are naturally anxious to elevate their beliefs to a higher status.

Old superstitions would have less chance to infiltrate public libraries if they were not disguised as alternative and revolutionary ideas inspired by the love of nature. The promoters of superstitions present them as serious solutions to humanitys ills. Pseudo­science is not an anti-science but alternative science. It is hoped that it will either re­place science or at least come to be accepted as being as respectable as science. Conse­quently, natural healing methods are not anti-medicine but alternative medicine. Some ardent believers consider them superior to 'conventional' medicine.

Superstitions legitimised as alternative science or alternative medicine are becoming acceptable and even respectable to some people. Opponents of superstitions are being accused of lacking historical imagination and of intellectual laziness. They are appar­ently naive, believing that civilisation based on science will last forever. They show cultural and intellectual arrogance by ignoring non-Western civilisations. In fact, postmodernists argue that Western civilisation is merely a temporary historical phe­nomenon. Its continuous existence is neither guaranteed nor desirable. Under this view western civilisation has caused much suffering and now actually threatens life on eanh in its blind and mad pursuit of industrial development.

The future of public libraries Once there was a consensus among librarians that libraries should be engaged in the fight against ignorance and that they should promote enlightenment. Today, we are faced with the problem of ignorance being presented as a true enlightenment. Confu­sion over core beliefs is evident in the Australian society, as in any other modern society. If libraries, schools and universities have not yet become battlegrounds in our cultural wars it can only be attributed to the views of a majority of people that ideas are of little consequence.

Yet, superstitious books in public libraries do have an impact on readers. The status of the library among users is still such that the availability of cenain classes of books in them qualifies those books as being a legitimate source of information. Their actual presence in the library provides credibility, especially if the library does not offer the caution that not all books in its collections provide information that can be relied upon. But if this caution is uttered it will raise questions about the probity of those selecting the material for purchase.

The public library is thus at a crossroads. Either it returns to its noble civilising mission or it will become a temple of ignorance. Ignorance may consist of more than a lack of knowledge if it is complemented by negative or false knowledge. People are ignorant not when they know nothing but when they mistake their false beliefs, such as the predictions of Nostradamus for true knowledge.

It would be naive to imagine that books whose essence is falsehood and disinformation will disappear from libraries in the near future, but what can at least be done is to discuss these problems publicly. Librarians have a social obligation to explain their motives for collecting superstitious materials if they choose to spend public money in this way.

It is difficult to be optimistic but one still has hope because, as Czeslaw Milosz writes in Canticle:

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Human reason is beautiful and invincible,

No bars, no barbed wire, no pulped books,

No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.

It establishes the universal ideas in language

And guides our hand so we write Truth and justice

with capital letters, lie and oppression with small ...

It saves austere and transparent phrases

From filthy discord of tortured words.

Beautiful and very young are Philo-Sophia

And poetry, her ally in the service of the good ...

Their friendship will be glorious, their time has no limit.

Their enemies delivered themselves to destruction

References 1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general

literature. Edinburgh : A. and C. Black, 1884

2. Britannica CD 2000 Multimedia Edition, 1999-2000

3. Gerry McGuire Thompson, The Atlas of the New Age New Burlington Books, 1999

4. Thus spoke Zarathustra: a book for everyone and no one translated with an intro­duction by RJ Hollingdale. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961

5. AD Hope Collected poems, 1930-1965. Hope. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1968

6. Conversations: interviews with Australian writers edited by Paul Kavanagh and Pe­ter Kuch. Angus and Robertson, 1991

7. David Tribe The rise of the mediocracy London. George Allen & Unwin, London 1975

8. Richard Webster Feng shui for success & happiness 1st ed. Publisher St. Paul, Minn. : Llewellyn Publications, 1999

9. 10,000 dreams interpreted: a complete guide to the meaning of your dreams. Mel­bourne : Lothian, 1991

10. The encyclopedia of dreams: a comprehensive study of dreams. Herron Publications Pty: Queensland, 1995

11. [Gustavus Hindman Miller] The dictionary of dreams: 10,000 dreams interpreted -a comprehensive and thorough study of dreams New York: Prentice Hall, 1986

12. Lewis Spence. The Encyclopedia of the occult: a compendium of information on the occult sciences, occult personalities, psychic science, magic, spiritism and mysticism London : Bracken Books, 1994

13. Ian White. Australian bush flower healing Sydney: Bantam, 1999

14. Vasant Lad Ayurveda: the science of self-healing: a practical guide, 2nd ed. 1984

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15. Anne Woodham, Encyclopedia of complementary medicine. Sydney: Dorling Kindersley, 1998

16. J. Burckhardt, The civilization of the Renaissance in Italy : an essay transl. SGC Middlemore, revised and edited by Irene Gordon. New York: New American Library, 1960

17. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation, a personal view [ videorecording] directed by Michael Gill. London: BBC Enterprises Ltd, 1990

18. Brian Appleyard Understanding the present: science and the soul of modem man London: Picador, 1992

19. Steven Weinberg The first three minutes: a modem view of the origin of the universe London: Flamingo 1993

20. Keith Thomas. Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in six­teenth and seventeenth century England London: Weidenfeld &: Nicolson, 1997

21. Vasant Lad; op. cit.

22. Vasant Lad; op. cit.

Miroslaw Kruk undertook his studies in librarianship at the Department of Librarianship, Archives and Records at Monash University. He works as an information analyst at Abix, a Melbourne-based provider of business information. His e-mail address is [email protected]

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