Bob’s “Fear is Stronger Than Greed” Syndrome
In times of crisis, truth is often the first casualty, non more than in the media coverage of the crisis. And when fear is the motivator for seeking the information, people are more gullible, accepting non-truths even when they may know better.
Knowing this, my friend, Bob, sent out an email, which he titled, “Media and Reality.” Cool and calm Bob had reached the boiling point; “One more comparison to the depression of the 30’s and I will throw a shoe through my TV.”
It is frequently said that the market place is driven by “fear and greed.” What needs to be noted is that it doesn’t read, “fear or greed.” When “fear” is shoved aside, greed takes over, ergo, the current crisis. Now the pendulum has swung the other way and Bob sees the media slinging “fuel on the fire,” when the “…thing we crave requires expert analysis –“
Several of us responded to his email, which gave him the opportunity to share Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If…”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
if…else statement
Izzy was his name
Looking to execute “if”
Condition is true
True was his game
Looking to execute “else”
Condition is false
kenne
I have my fifteen seconds and I am over-matched. With all the confusion, I have not had time to enjoy the site and relish the last several entries! Bravo!