To: CommanderCricket who wrote (134859 ) 6/14/2010 11:13:35 AM From: ames 1 Recommendation Respond to of 206181 Re "sensationalist." You have public voices in politics, business, and media trying to catch the attention of 300+ million highstrung, not-always-deep-thinking bipeds. The bipeds are easily distractible and prone to denial, esp about things they can't personally control. In addition, you have an industry and a financial system historically prone to wild boom / bust behavior - repeated cycles of manic bubbles and uh-oh collapses. Who can be surprised that everybody oversimplifies themes trying to compel attention? Like advertising, it's a screaming contest to capture attention and manage morale. BP and many industry folks were deluding themselves about risk analysis in an effort to scalp a few extra points for the bottom line. No contingency plans, let alone materials in place, eg. Politicians understandably don't know what's going on a mile under the waves - how could they? They know the air is always full of jive and self-congratulating rationalizations - that's what politics is: sorting out BS. So naturally they want to call a halt until someone can reassure them that the zany risk-taking is again under control. You hear lots of growling about politicians, etc, as if the bipeds were wise and reliably self-disciplined - as if behavior could be simply plotted on an engineering graph. But reality-testing says otherwise. More practically, the outrage over the reaction to the disaster - and it is a disaster - is itself a sign of risk-taking bubble mentality. It's understandable but it misses the point. The reaction may well be an overreaction, but sometimes that what it takes to focus those 300+ agitated millions.