And we just had a winner
The local market has a sign that says, "There was a $500 Lotto winner here…"
A cursory knowledge of statistics will help you see that this doesn't matter. It doesn't make it more likely or less likely that they'll have a winner today or even tomorrow.
And yet…
And yet sales go up after a big win. And to veer to the tragic, when a friend is struck with a serious disease, we're more likely to go to the doctor.
Because proximity is truth.
The truth of experience, the truth of immediacy, the truth of it might just happen to me.
That's why the media has been such a powerful force, because it brings the distant much closer.
And why small communities of interest and connection are still the dominant force in our culture. Because people like us, do things like this.