>they are the most obvious case of passive optimism I have ever seen.
I submit the Breatharians, fascinating for their extreme gullibility and/or
outrageous chicanery.
Natasha rightly notes the potentially fatal aspects of thinking a toupee will
save your life. Tha's exactly the notion I'm trying to support a "fatal
religion" citation.
I hypothesize that passive fatalism at one time served as a reasonably
effective cure (if taken in large doses) for the anomie of near-certain
death. Humans may even have evolved memetic receptor sites for
relgio-opiates. I'm thus experimenting with an synthetic analog that will
fit the same site but not induce the stupifying effects of religious
ideology. You might say that, with reliberium, I'm trying to create a
methodone for religious heroin!
T.0. Morrow