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<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">On Monday, October 3, 2011 2:20 PM Adrian Tymes <A href="mailto:atymes@gmail.com">atymes@gmail.com</A> wrote:<BR style="RIGHT: auto">> I had exactly the opposite reaction. It struck me as a lot of bawwing</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> and nothing on how to actually fix the problem.<BR>><BR>> Analysis and introspection about the current situation, are only</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> useful insofar as they point their way to solutions. Analysis about</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> how terrible everything is, conducted only for its own sake (and/or</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> the emotional release from affirming that nothing oneself can do</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> matters), is a form of masturbation. Specifically, it is called</DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">> "disasterbation".<BR></DIV>
<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">I haven't yet finished reading the piece, but your comment remnds me of something Caplan wrote in his _The Myth of the Rational Voter_. It was specifically about pessimistic bias:</DIV>
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<DIV style="RIGHT: auto"><A style="RIGHT: auto" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_the_Rational_Voter#Pessimistic_bias">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_the_Rational_Voter#Pessimistic_bias</A></DIV>
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<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">I bring this up because things might not be as bleak as many are making them out to be. Recall just a few years ago, in the US, some were forecasting 10USD a gallon for gas. Well, gas prices fell. Granted, that's not a knockdown argument against pessimistic bias, but it should call into question some of the gloom and doom predictions that seem to, zombielike, rise up again and again. (Reminds me of a quip someone once said about a certain group of naysayers having predicted nine of last one famines.<VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR>)</DIV>
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<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">Regards,</DIV>
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<DIV style="RIGHT: auto">Dan</DIV></DIV></div></body></html>