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The renowned psychologist Don Campbell once observed that human beings depend on “wise superstitions.” These are the rituals we do without knowing why we do them, any more than the squirrel knows why it gathers acorns for the winter. But if the squirrel doesn’t gather them, it will starve. Campbell said that human beings also do many things that seem irrational, but without them communities would wither and die. We do these things because they have a greater function than they seem to have at the time, and we only see their purpose when they cease to be practiced.