Ignorance is indeed bliss. Here the financial world almost collapsed and I didn't even know until I read about it on Chabad.org. Now that's a lesson right there—all you need to know is right here!
The NASDAQ and other exchanges reversed the trades made because of the erroneous information—a teshuvah (repentance) lesson if there ever was one. We can make mistakes and still reinstate our standing with G‑d; in fact, we can even have past sins completely reversed!
But it was this quote from CNN.com that caught my attention: "The slowed trading occurred at a time that investors were growing increasingly worried about Greece's debt issues and other economic factors."
So had the economy not been on a roller coaster – reeling for the past few years, and then seeming to rebound – investors might have seen this for the computer glitch it apparently was. Instead, spooked traders who thought the rebounding economic news of the last year was a sign that all was right in the world and we'd never regress again, freaked at the sight of trouble.
I believe that there is a strong message here. We all have our less-than-ideal tendencies, and we try to overcome them. With few exceptions, however, we don't truly master ourselves. We fend off our impulses, but that's it.
Tanya, the primary work of Chabad philosophy, opens with a Talmudic quote: "Even if the whole world says to you that you are a tzaddik [cured of the distraction that is posed by anything that is not G‑dly]—consider yourself similar to [i.e., vulnerable as] a rasha [one capable of failure]."
I overeat, I resolve to diet, I resist cupcakes for several days or even months in a row. Am I cured, no longer prone to over-indulgence?
A rocky economy sets a certain tone. Then, a few indicators of recovery offset the loser mentality. We are in the clear; happy days are here again! It's "limit up" every day from here on!
Bad idea.
Tomorrow or next year, my instinct to overeat will assert itself again. If I interpreted my previous successful resistance to mean that I am now immune to temptation, I will see the reappearing impulses as an indicator that I am a failure, forever destined to overeat (so why keep trying?).
This is self-defeating. I must realize from the start that I am never going to fully eradicate my bad tendencies, and so there's no need to panic if temptation reappears. Even if, G‑d forbid, I surrender to it—there is teshuvah, opportunity to regroup and resolve.
We don't solve the market anymore than our inclinations; though we hope to control the direction it takes us. Like dandruff, the market and our character are conditions, we don't seek a cure only get a handle on it. Armed with an appropriate measure of neurosis we are prepared for dips and corrections, we see them for what they are and adjust—rather than "Chicken Little" it to the nearest bridge.
My diet continues.
