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.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (48006)	5/19/2002 8:39:01 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Respond to of 82486

We can only do the best we can... and hold to the principles we believe in. One thing I learned as a professor was that most feedback comes from, and most of one's time is spent dealing with, the small minority of students who aren't doing well, or who have complaints. The majority of students with the smiley faces just move on. Every so often, one of them will come back years later and tell you how much your class meant to them. Those are the moments that warm your heart. That is probably why we like "It's Wonderful Life" so much. It is such a great parable as to how none of us can ever know how different so much of life would be if we had never lived, if we had never touched the lives of all those people that we did, without knowing it. I don't think these things can be manipulated or planned. All too often a deliberate intervention in someone's life does more harm than good. For example, the impulse of a parent to protect a child (even a grown one) from experiencing pain, such as in marital or love-life problems, can result in depriving that person of the satisfaction that comes from resolving the problem on their own. We should share wisdom, but not try to take over. All highly achieving and well-adjusted people, now and in the past, have had their histories of failure, pain, and often trauma, which became the building blocks of the their successful lives.

To: epicure who wrote (48006)	5/19/2002 9:24:02 PM
From: coug	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Hi X, << Chains of causation are simply too complex for us poor little human critters to fathom. Reflection is somewhat useful after this kind of event, but the next event which is similar will be dissimilar enough to make comparisons useless.>> Absolutely, And that is why I roll my eyes, when I read and hear of "our leadership" playing the game of chess with international relationships and on down to individual armchair quarterbacks proclaiming with great pomposity, if we do this to "country a", "country b" will respond like this "to be" "country c" and on and on as they fight: Last year's war with a policy that is not a dollar short, but a decade behind, (And time, IMO, is always more important than money, but that is another story for another time).. So it never works, and a REACTIVE policy is implemented and when that reactive tact is taken, a person, an entity or society will never catch up.... Like our current administration, is pleading ignorance as an excuse for the 9-11 tragedy.. To paraphrase Ms. Rice, "We didn't expect them to fly passenger and fuel leaden domestic airliners into the WTC on September 11".. They had never done that before".. Is ignorance an excuse? No.. So please DON'T use it in such an important matter.. We the citizens of this country pay these people and therefore expect these people to be ahead of the curve to their best abilities. And to be open and honest with US and themselves.. And ALLOW self-examination, as all good societies should do. But to be fair.. All leaders throughout history, and damn near all individuals look backward and base their conclusions of the the future on the past.. You learn from the past..But "The past is not the key to the future" as we were taught in so many geology classes <gg>, It helps there..But life and society are dynamic, versus a more static geologic environment .. Well, we are not taking in account,<gg> plate tectonics, and it's related volcanic and structural activity, erosion, transportation, sedimentation, etc. And all of the above, do not react in a predictable way based upon the past... There are just too many randomly placed variables for the events to bounce off of to predict what hole the event will fall in..... But an individual must learn from the past, to get a PATTERN, like in trading, which hopefully should reduce the variables.. Just some Sunday evening thoughts with a glass of Merlot. m