You make the usual errors:
* wishful thinking, that things will be as we _wish_ them to be, not as they actually _are_
* magical thinking, that if people believe incorrect thoughts, in your opinion, they must have helped _cause_ bad events
* "if everyone thought that way, think of what would happen!"
(Note that the only people who got out of the top floors of either tower were those who ignored the P.A. system to "avoid panic, stay where you are, the fire department has things under control." I watch a young woman named Linda Perry describe how her husband, Rick Perry, was on one of the top floors in the second tower to be hit. She was talking to him on his cellphone, and he was thinking about leaving the building. The P.A. system told them to remain calm, not to panic, to stay at their desks. Linda said some of his colleagues were saying "I'm outta here!" and they fled down the elevators and stairwells. Ten minutes later, his own tower was hit, and he told his wife on the cellphone that smoke was coming in under the doors...then, silence, as the tower collapsed.)
It is "magical thinking" to think that those who discuss the logical effects of this attack on soft targets are somehow culpable. Jingoism in the worst way.
And it is foolish to think that people should go out next week and buy stocks for more than their market value, and prospects in the coming recession, support. That is the financial equivalent of "don't panic, stay at your desks, help is on the way."
Game-theoretically, it always makes sense for the leaders to urge calm, to urge the sheeple to buy stocks and to go out and buy SUVs and other luxury items to keep the consumage economy humming.
So, stay at your desks, support America by buying a big-screen t.v., go deeper in debt, wait for the fire department, be loyal.
As for your insults, your claims that my post was "incendiary," you can't handle the truth.
--Tim May |
