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September 25, 2008

Voltaire, Batman and the Precipice

Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

    -- Dark Knight (2008)

Take your third deep breath in ten days. Because we stand at a precipice in U.S. markets. Congress is playing political brinkmanship with the biggest financial decision of our generation. We just had the largest bank failure in U.S. history. Credit spreads have widened to the point of gibbering meaninglessness. And some people are still nattering about what might be the perfect variant of the Paulson bailout plan.

Listen. There is no perfect. As Voltaire wrote , "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien". The perfect is the enemy of the good. No plan is perfect; no plan will be static. But standing on the precipice and inching every closer to the abyss is stupid and suicidal.

Admittedly, some people don't care. They are so wrapped in their vendettas,their ideological purity and their Calvinist moralizing that they would rather see everything come down around their ears than do anything about it. Fuck them. While some men want to watch the world burn, we don't need to stand idly by while they set the fire.

I shouldn't be posting things as I'm too tired and frustrated, but in case you can't tell, I've had it.

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