I was reading a book and came to this part:
“In 1856 in South Africa, girl from one Xhosa villiage, named Nongqawuse went to fields to work, and according to her, strangers approached her, claiming to be dead ancestors who came with a conditional promise: if Xhosa would slay all their cattle, destroy their grain stores, cease planting crops, and purify themselves of all witchcraft, a great day will dawn when British would vanish from the land and the ancestors would live again, bringing with them new and more plentiful cattle and grain. Then would Xhosa live again in peace and prosperity. Her uncle and guardian, himself soothsayer in tribal tradition, took up her claims and won over large numbers of believers from many Xhosa tribes. When anticipated date of alleged return passed without any sign of fulfillment, Nongqawuse and her uncle insisted that failure stemmed from imperfect fulfillment of their demands: tribesmen had not slain all the cattle, and had even sold many for profit. So believers undertook an even more bloody slaughter that not only wiped out their own stocks, but also put enormous pressure on those who did not believe Nongqawuse’s millennial prophecy to kill their cattle as well. Each subsequent disappointment led to greater slaughter of cattle until, when it was all over, Xhosa had killed some half a million cattle. By end of 1857, some thirty thousand to fifty thousand Xhosa had starved, and British had herded many others into labor camps; white settlers took over and cleared more land. How can we understand this self-inflicted catastrophe? Why did not or could not people stop the madness before it did so much damage? Why did Nongqawuse’s many detractors fail to discredit her after first or second failures of her ridiculous prophetic promises?” (Richard Landes, 2011, Heaven on Earth, Oxford University Press)
That girl reminds me very strongly of all sorts of people from Keynes to Paul Krugram to their colleagues and students.
So-called economists every week print in New York Times some editorial why “if only government spent more, had higher taxes, printed more money, and had more welfare programs, and people invested less in capital (i.e., less tools, knowledge, technology, science, you know, useful stuff that contributes to wealth and standard of living).”
When economy get worse, after people take their advice, the same so-called economists and politicians do exactly what cult leaders in ancient times did: “oh, its not helping? … well then, do it more. Because if a little bit of poison makes you feel ill… yeah, so… a whole lot more will make you feel much better. Anyway, don’t worry that it makes no sense… just go with it. Karl Marx the lord in heaven commands you… I know so, because my neighbor told me. He found out about it while extracting important statistical facts from the tiles of his office floor.”