Horbury or Bethany
Aug. 8th, 2011 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueOdd day on the markets. Lots of panic, as one expected after S&P's clown show of "courage." Since nobody really behaved rationally, analysts were pretty much reduced to saying "well, everyone's panicking, you see, and it will stop at some point when they take naps or something, and until then there's not much to be said." I have a new perspective on musicians playing on the Titanic. Let me clarify before I go further that I am not comparing the equity market to the Titanic. I am in no way that pessimistic. The economic fundamentals are not worse today than they were Thursday. In many respects, they are in fact better. This is the very reason I say people are panicked and acting irrationally.
I have a new perspective on the musicians playing on the Titanic. I have often heard their behavior referred to as either romantic and noble or a silly denial of reality. But when I think about it, they were in a disastrous situation outside of their control. No response would have affected it or been equal to it in gravity. So they just carried on with what they'd choose to do if the ship wasn't sinking, just like the people who dressed and went to the bar. Markets are tumbling and the unemployment rate remains very high, but ultimately this makes no difference to the fact that I like to maintain my tomato garden and buy birthday presents for people.
A response I don't understand particularly is looting; once when I was very angry as a teenager I tore down a small wooden fence with a keep out sign because it seemed like a thing angry people did, rip nailed together things apart with their hands. It just felt silly and unrelated to the things I was angry about.
And while I was glad to have the fence down (which was on our property, which I always had to duck under to get from the side yard to the cliff), it also made me feel confused and uncomfortable every time I took that path afterward - embarrassed even though nobody saw me rip the sign down and even though I didn't do it badly or have a reason to regret it. I felt ashamed, but not ashamed for tearing it down so much as for trying to playact to myself a human nature that has never managed to be a part of my nature. It is things like these that make me feel inhuman. It's odd to feel sad and lonely about not wanting to set a trash can on fire even slightly, but there it is.
I have a new perspective on the musicians playing on the Titanic. I have often heard their behavior referred to as either romantic and noble or a silly denial of reality. But when I think about it, they were in a disastrous situation outside of their control. No response would have affected it or been equal to it in gravity. So they just carried on with what they'd choose to do if the ship wasn't sinking, just like the people who dressed and went to the bar. Markets are tumbling and the unemployment rate remains very high, but ultimately this makes no difference to the fact that I like to maintain my tomato garden and buy birthday presents for people.
A response I don't understand particularly is looting; once when I was very angry as a teenager I tore down a small wooden fence with a keep out sign because it seemed like a thing angry people did, rip nailed together things apart with their hands. It just felt silly and unrelated to the things I was angry about.
And while I was glad to have the fence down (which was on our property, which I always had to duck under to get from the side yard to the cliff), it also made me feel confused and uncomfortable every time I took that path afterward - embarrassed even though nobody saw me rip the sign down and even though I didn't do it badly or have a reason to regret it. I felt ashamed, but not ashamed for tearing it down so much as for trying to playact to myself a human nature that has never managed to be a part of my nature. It is things like these that make me feel inhuman. It's odd to feel sad and lonely about not wanting to set a trash can on fire even slightly, but there it is.
