The Power of Panic
Ken could NOT have written a better post. He summed up much of what is happening in the current panic incredibly well.
Please feel free to visit Ken's post to comment.
As I have written one of my favorite movie quotes of all time (next to most of Cool Hand Luke) is the line from Men In Black where K says to J, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals." Go get some coffee ... and maybe a sandwich - you'll need it. Hang on, though, there is hope in this message!
Most of us have never lived through so much financial panic. The real estate market has all but frozen, the credit market has frozen and then some, joblessness is on the rise and will continue to be so for the next 12 to 18 months by most predictions, the dollar is amazingly holding some value, and there are about a thousand other macro and micro economic indications reacting like compasses in a magnetic storm. Ask Robert Ashby what that means. In fact as Robert what vertigo can do to a pilot who has not learned to trust his instruments.
The reason J made that statement to K was because K asked why the men in black didn't just tell everyone about the aliens. K's thought was that if everyone knew the aliens were all over the place it would end their fears and that knowledge would be all the earth needed to get along peacefully. J knew better. J knew that even with the knowledge of the truth people's initial reaction would be to panic and make war on the aliens - he was probably correct.
So what have we today? What aliens are among us which have so panicked us? Moreover how do we become the peacemakers to still the stormy todays and tomorrows of our clients, neighbors, friends and family?
What causes panic?
Panic is almost always caused by one of three things: a lack of understanding, a repeated traumatic experience or imagined fears. The lack of understanding is simple enough to cure through training and education. Even the repeated traumatic experience can result in limited panic through training and experience. Imagined fears, on the other hand, are the tools of our enemies, our opponents and those who have reason to put us into a panic so they may better control us. Still, the latter can be contained through having key people in key locations to help others see the truth and to understand those fears may be unwarranted.
Right now the entire world (with the exception of some of those remote tribes that shoot arrows at helicopters and right in their hieroglyphs about the noisy monster that can from heaven and shook the ground and trees) is in a panic about the global economy. Production and employment is down in almost every sector around the world. Unfortunately we, and by we I mean us, think it a wise idea to leave the power of correction in the hands of some of the least experienced business people in the world. We leave decisions affecting our life today and tomorrow in the hands, and votes, of people who have never had to generate an income for our family and our employees. Then when anyone who has that experience dares to question the almighties we are called, by we I mean me, "tool" "drunken monkey" and "sieve brain". That last one was a new one.
Read this for information - it's not an attack on any one government official - it's an accusation of them all: Our elected government just passed the largest spending bill in the history of the world. Support for it was and is garnered by executing a base level attack on the fears of the unwitting. If you think most of them who voted for this bill are not going to prosper greatly from it then you fit in category 1: a lack of understanding.
Okay Mr. Genius, where do we get this understanding? Oh I am so glad you asked. I actually get mine from an ancient manuscript that says things like this have to happen. It also says money and everything that comes along with it is worthless when you are dead. But I also get it from people just like you - people who comment on my blogs and write your own blogs. I get it from the guy who sells me advertising and the guy who delivers my water. Why? Because K was right, too. A person is smart.
Recently I have started or begun participating in a couple of small groups who talk about either business or politics. We are generally 12 to 20 people per meeting and everyone has something to add to the group. We all feel better when we leave the group than before we came.
The HOPE is not in Washington DC.
The HOPE is not in Wall Street.
The HOPE is not on CNN, FoxNews or MSNBC.
The HOPE is in strengthening the bonds in your family, your friendships and right here on Active Rain.
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