Post by nobody on Feb 18, 2016 20:04:42 GMT -6
I've been reading a novel by Robert Harris, one of my fav writers, not to be confused with Thomas Harris author of Black Sunday, Red Dragon, and Silence of the Lambs. Robert Harris has ranged widely, from a biographical novel about Cicero and one about the burial of Pompeii, to alternate recent Russian history in Archangel and German alternate history in Fatherland, to a semi-fictional novel about the breaking of the Enigma code in WWII.
I picked up a pristine 2012 copy of Harris' The Fear Index for $.50 a week ago. A financial/computer thriller. Here are quotes from page 86 of The Fear Index. See what you think.
' "In fact fear is probably the strongest human emotion, period ... One thing we've been able to do, for instance, is correlate recent market fluctuations with the frequency of rate of fear-related words in the media -- terror, alarm, panic, horror, dismay, dread, scare, anthrax, nuclear. Our conclusion is that fear is driving the world as never before....
' "Our conclusion is that digitalisation itself is creating an epidemic of fear, and that Epictetus had it right: we live in a world not of real things but of opinion and fantasy. The rise in market volatility, in our opinion, is a function of digitalisation, which is exaggerating human mood swings by the unprecedented dissemination of information via the internet....."'
As I read this I thought of the presidential campaigns. Fear is a blueprint for a political campaign more than an investment algorithm for a hedge fund.
Sure, fear was the motive behind many a vote and election, but quite possibly the internet has made and is making a difference. The Republicans are doing a good job of stirring up fear. Fear was the reason George W was re-elected in 2004, and a relative lack of fear the reason Obama was elected in '08.
Sanders is campaigning on economic and inequality fear, but is that a match for the GOP stirring up worries about terrorism and ISIS? We are going to see a campaign showing Jihadi John and a malevolent Putin and Kim Jong Il in TV ads and on posters.
Your thoughts?
I picked up a pristine 2012 copy of Harris' The Fear Index for $.50 a week ago. A financial/computer thriller. Here are quotes from page 86 of The Fear Index. See what you think.
' "In fact fear is probably the strongest human emotion, period ... One thing we've been able to do, for instance, is correlate recent market fluctuations with the frequency of rate of fear-related words in the media -- terror, alarm, panic, horror, dismay, dread, scare, anthrax, nuclear. Our conclusion is that fear is driving the world as never before....
' "Our conclusion is that digitalisation itself is creating an epidemic of fear, and that Epictetus had it right: we live in a world not of real things but of opinion and fantasy. The rise in market volatility, in our opinion, is a function of digitalisation, which is exaggerating human mood swings by the unprecedented dissemination of information via the internet....."'
As I read this I thought of the presidential campaigns. Fear is a blueprint for a political campaign more than an investment algorithm for a hedge fund.
Sure, fear was the motive behind many a vote and election, but quite possibly the internet has made and is making a difference. The Republicans are doing a good job of stirring up fear. Fear was the reason George W was re-elected in 2004, and a relative lack of fear the reason Obama was elected in '08.
Sanders is campaigning on economic and inequality fear, but is that a match for the GOP stirring up worries about terrorism and ISIS? We are going to see a campaign showing Jihadi John and a malevolent Putin and Kim Jong Il in TV ads and on posters.
Your thoughts?