“It was much pleasanter at home, when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits.” - Alice in Wonderland
Rod Dreher has a fascinating observation over at his blog. He talks about watching an interview on CNBC with Taleb and Roubini:
“Both men are notorious bears, and called the current crash long in advance. Both, CNBC tells us, were the hottest tickets at the recent Davos gathering. CNBC called them in to discuss the crisis. Roubini and Taleb were both trying to make their case for why what’s wrong with the economy is radical, is fundamental, goes to the very base of all our economic assumptions.
The CNBC twits just wanted stock tips and investing advice.”
The more I think about his point, the more I think that it epitomizes something fundamental about the intellectual shift we have to make - and about how hard it is to make it. Moreover, it caused me to think about how hard it will be to unmake that shift. I commented on the piece at Rod’s blog, and said,
Peacenik thinks this is an intersting post by Sharon Astyk. It is time for Peacenik to get Peacenik's head around a whole new paradigm. Peacenik doesnt' like the word paradigm. It is a word that has been used by the crooks on Wall Street and in the banks to assure the sheeple that investments were safe. Dot Com bubble. New paradigm. Housing bubble. New paradigm. Credit bubble. New paradigm. If Peacenik criticized the markets, it was because Peacenik couldn't grasp a new paradigm. But now there may actually be a new paradigm. One that Wall St. and the Banks will want to deny. A paradigm where sheeple believe the stock market is not safe and cannot return the 8% return necessary to fund either sheeple's retirement or of course big profits and commissions for the brokers and bankers. That is a scary paradigm. That is reality. That is why Peacenik reads about survivalism and balcony gardening. That is why Peacenik is looking for a backyard to bury Peacenik's coin collection in.
