This entry was posted on 3/23/2008 9:02 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
23 March 2008
Sense and Consequence - Redux II
It never ceases to shock and to bewilder me when people act against sense and against the very data presented before it to warn against such acts in the first place. Clearly, there are minds, there is evidence, and there are paragons of brilliance very much alive. And yet, the asinine folly and sheer stupidity runs rampantly at the consequence, detriment, harm, and loss to 'Joe Public'.
Why?
Why, when we know better.
Why, when we are advised better?
Why, when we are warned so fervently by our past?
Why, when the ghosts of tragedy abound, do we continue to feed the cesspool of our society's dysfunction?
Why, when we have such great examples to follow, do we continue to choose so precipitously and so wrongly?
Think I am exaggerating? Well then, let us just take a 'peek' at our economic sector:
Open up the papers, turn on the weekly business reports, and it is clear that stupidity abounds. If we believe the reports today, our economic state is:
1) in a 'downturn' (although the 4th Quarter 2007 reports positive economic growth) and
2) falling to a 'recession' (although it is too premature to declare so, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research's definition of a recession that there must be two consecutive quarters of economic decline) marked by
a) the sell-off of Bear Stearns (although this was more a manipulation/bullying of the hedge fund fiasco fueled by power and greed run amok),
b) 'rising' unemployment (although the National Bureau statistics claim the opposite),
c) 'crashing' housing market (although after coming off a 'boom', this could be a natural progression to this characteristically cyclical market),
d) fluctuating currencies (although that is the historical nature of the world currencies), and a
e) cascading snowball that is our world financial markets as the societe generale and credit suisse sort out their scandals and the asian markets 're-adjust' their 'positions and positioning'.
In the face of all this (premature, gossip-manipulated) press, thank goodness for the remaining vestiges of truth qua sense via Ben Stein (a must read: Ben Stein's "Making Sense of a Scared New World," The New York Times, 23 March 2008). It is rather unfortunate that it should require such a sovereign mind as Stein's to have to assemble, categorize, present, and publish the data - yes, the actual facts - before us, and with such brilliance that any 'lay person' can grasp with absolute clarity...
Stupidity fueled by 'herdism' and manipulation is here to stay, but at least we have warnings and little bastions of 'truth' to provide light in the darkness, thereby enabling us to identify the cesspool as such.
Kudos, Ben Stein.
Shame on you, 'watchdogs' - ahem, SEC, the Fed - for knowing well the Milken scandal, the technology crash, the October Black Friday - and persisting rather than deterring. Shame on you for creating SarbOx and not acting on it, not furthering it, to impress upon the call for transparency and disclosure...
There is far too much licentious manipulation fueled by (capitalist) greed at the expense of 'Joe Public' - JP who is the hardworking backbone holding up the economy with his grueling Monday-Friday 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. routine, busting his hump, fighting out the rat race, only to be bullied, trampled, and herded like a hypnotized fool. Shame on you for beating him down and stealing his future...
In a capitalist economy that cattle calls the masses to effect a 'snowball' of loss and deception, why not wrestle the megaphone away and declare a 'snowball' of individuality backed by sense, data, and truth qua facts?
In more ways than one - hyphenation - and this is the haiku:
one - truth,
one - de-hypnotize,
one to break the herd,
one - potentiality,
one - hyphenation, please...
...and if not hyphenation, then why not begin with the original idea - the think...
Think for your self,
think for your truth,
think for your potentiality,
and you will be one step closer towards your individuality and freedom from the mental enslavement of herdism...
...and more importantly, to your truth qua voice in action, and towards change,
towards effective difference.
