No one predicted the dramatic fall of President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, least of all the astrologers who assured him it was a propitious time to go to the polls. Not that it took any special powers to predict he’d be the likely winner. Rajapaksa had cemented his rule after defeating the Tamil insurrection in 2009: he faced no real opposition. Indeed, he’d installed so many family members in positions of power they virtually ran the country. 

Then something astonishing happened. A key ally, the health minister Maithripala Sirisena, suddenly threw his hat in the ring, declaring he couldn’t stand by and watch Rajapaksa plunder the country. His campaign brilliantly focused on the president’s personal faults: his arrogance, his “drug dealer” friends, the “brazen” way he indulged his children’s expensive tastes. So by the time of the vote, Sirisena had gained the edge. Rajapaksa’s undoing was his unquestioning faith in astrology, a vice he shares with most Sri Lankans who just blame the particular astrologer, not astrology itself, when predictions fail. We should be grateful. Had Rajapaska ignored the astrologers, we might have been stuck with the villain for decades. (The Week)

At least he left quietly. It seems extraordinary that people like that still believe in astrology. The world is full of bogus beliefs, although astrology is just silly and doesn’t rise to the level of damage that some religions do. I personally follow Epicurus, not because he was scientically correct all the time, but because he tried to find scientific and rational reasons for how the world is, snd at the same time was a humanist who put men and women before ideology, stressing friendship, moderation, consideration and love. It is disturbing that this simple message has so little resonance against the crooks, thieves and control freaks who seem to end up in charge, in this case running a country based on astrology, of all things.