Worry and Estimations
The World Trade Center was hit. The Pentagon was hit. As a nation, there is excessive pain, cost, and grief. Things aren't going to be better in the next couple of days, weeks, or even months. Yet there's every reason not to be fatalistic about these events. That is, I suppose, only a single point of view.
I work in the financial industry, and there are a lot of people that are really wrapped up in the theory of the market. To them, this is all a reason to sell... into an economic depression. But they are depressed about this. I find that more than a little funny.
A Trader sees what he thinks he must do and then is depressed about it. He doesn't even see that he has options - choices that are open to him. And that those choices would allow him to feel better about himself, and the work that he does. All he sees is that the theory - which he places so much faith in, tells him how to act. I feel really sorry for folks that don't realize that they are prisoners of their own choices. We are all free creatures... free to do what we want, when we want, accepting the consequences of those actions - good or bad.
Maybe the depression is focused at the faith in the market theory... if they didn't place as much faith in the theory, then they wouldn't be forced to do what they thought they were being told to do. It's interesting that people who may not think of themselves as faith-based tie themselves to their beliefs as much as fanatical religious types.
People are funny...