I read with great interest David Klinghoffer's Dec. 17 commentary (originally printed in the Los Angeles Times) "Appeal of the otherworldly remains strong." While I agree that a great interest in the otherworldly is pervasive in America and the world, I find that this hardly indicates the reality of "the unseen," but rather the persistence of superstition, bigotry and a tragic inability to comprehend ourselves and our place in each other's lives, let alone our place in the universe.
What does this lead to? Celebrations of ignorance such as witch hunts, crusades, intolerance, wars, goose-stepping mentalities, white sheets and burning crosses, quantum cults, "scientific" creationism, faith healing and La La land.
The lure of the irrational is as close as your medium of choice. Larry King has been giving us massive doses of channeled wisdom via CNN for the past couple of years. And the "Coast to Coast" radio show, which Klinghoffer enjoys listening to, while including physicists like Michi Kaku and skeptics like Harold Shermer, features far more nut-jobs and conspiracy freaks than savants.
Though there is a certain poetry in some of these messages from beyond as well as a certain humorous appeal, there remains the frightening idea that many people seek out "Coast to Coast" as a legitimate source of news, though one of the hosts — George Noory — in a moment of lucidity coined the term "entertainment news" to cover most of what goes on there. Sadly, fewer and fewer people seem not to know the difference, or to care.