There was a story on NPR the other day about the brain's propensity to look for patterns, even when there aren't any. If you're feeling out of control in your life, your brain will look for patterns everywhere, even see faces in static. Conspiracy theories seem to sprout up over the most devastating and baffling events in life-- JFK, AIDS, 9/11, Katrina. When the events of the world are so beyond your control, you look for something to explain it all.
With the current economic meltdown, with the DOW dropping another 700 points just moments ago, or the insane proposal that Sarah Palin, another gun's-blaring, don't blink, don't think, don't prepare, god-is-my-co-pilot'er could possibly be half a heartbeat away from control of the nuclear codes, Frank Rich, in his New York Times article piece this weekends, seems to suggest Palin is a modern day Manchurian Candidate, installed in the VP slot with the intention she'll go on to the Presidency because the striking omissions in McCain's medical records are similar to the blank spots in the Watergate tapes. Is McCain just another tantrum away from death? Is his melanoma more likely to return than previously suggested? Will the October surprise not be that McCain drops Palin from the ticket, but that they switch positions, with Palin at the top?
Or is that just my brain looking for a pattern?
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