Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jim black who wrote (10222)	9/24/2001 12:54:10 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 74559

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that there is an unprecedentedly bad drought in Afghanistan right now. Millenarian apocalyptic movements spring up, not when times are good, not when times are bad, but when times are unprecedentedly bad. People who would never otherwise engage in political activity become infected with the meme due to desperation in times of crisis. The USA, by far, gives the most humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. If we were to turn inward and away, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, would perish. Similarly, if we were to stop buying oil from Middle Eastern countries, their economies would be devastated. I agree that we need to find acceptable substitutes for times of war and other crises, but I don't agree that we should turn our back on the region - I realize you are not advocating that, but I think that's the inevitable result of weaning ourselves from Middle Eastern oil. I think that the fact that Americans use their automobiles for frivolities as well as necessities causes those with a Puritanical bent to tsk-tsk. For the most part, those blue-noses are just poking their blue noses into other people's business, IMO. They're cut from the same cloth as the Club of Rome and Malthus - - none of the dire predictions of Malthus and the Club of Rome have come true yet, but their pessimism is hardwired into their souls, I fear.

To: jim black who wrote (10222)	9/24/2001 1:08:25 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

You might be interested in this op ed piece on Findlaw.com which advises us to avoid the mental error of assigning collective guilt - it's the same mental trap that the terrorists have fallen into. If one believes in collective guilt, then obviously the people who were killed on September 11 got what they deserved, because they are Americans, and Americans have done terrible things. Similarly, it's ok to kill Arabs and Middle Easterners without discrimination, because people from the same ethnic background did terrible things. My own opinion is that there is no such thing as collective guilt. writ.news.findlaw.com