Religious and worldly wealth bubbles

Some days the financial meltdown has me feeling like our stock market portfolio -- trashed.

In an effort to get some benefit from the holy shit! that bursts forth every time I take a peek at our Schwab account (my soma hasn't shown up yet), I'll attempt to suck some cosmic meaning out of the dry rind of increasingly bad economic news.

What's been striking me is how similar a rapid decline in net worth and a sudden loss of religious faith can feel.

Having experienced both, I can say that the defining emotional characteristic of each (for me, at least) is a sensation akin to standing in a rapidly descending elevator. The floor is still there, but it's falling away from you.

Exciting. Disturbing. Unsettling. Exhilarating. All at the same time.

When the elevator comes to a stop and the door opens, you're on a lower floor, closer to the building's foundation. Now you can walk on and go about your business. Or, pleasure.

Similarly, coming down from the artificial high of a financial or religious bubble can make someone feel like the plug has been pulled on a bathtub full of reality.

Except bubbles aren't really real. They've been artificially inflated to appear larger than they are.

Unfortunately, brokerage house statements and theological belief systems don't come with warnings like car mirrors do: "Your financial/religious net worth may be a lot smaller than it appears."

With the housing bubble, people thought that the value of homes was a lot higher than was actually sustainable. With my true believing bubble, I thought that the value of certain religious tenets was a lot higher than they turned out to be.

I'm fascinated by the connection between monetary and spiritual investing (which perhaps is visible only to me, given how little attention my brilliant musings on this subject, such as this post, have received from the world outside my head).

In both pursuits, it's easy to lose sight of basics, fundamentals, simple principles. Most people -- me included, at some points in my life -- feel that they can beat the broad market.

Investors think they're smarter than the "other guy," forgetting that to other investors, they are that guy.

Religious believers consider that they're saved while other apostates are doomed, forgetting that to believers in other faiths, they are doomed.

I've come to the conclusion that it's better to go with the flow, both economically and salvationally. Index investing is the equivalent of spiritual agnosticism. Whatever happens to everybody is what will happen to you.

(See "Spiritual diversification, a sound salvation strategy")

So this economic downturn is a nice (first time I've used that term about the meltdown) reminder that what goes up unnaturally must come down.

Keeping our feet on the ground...
Not trying to be superior...
Accepting things as they really are...

That's genuine wealth.

Comments

[Helen]

*What's been striking me is how similar a rapid decline in net worth and a sudden loss of religious faith can feel.*

Is this because playing the stock market and pinning one's hopes on a particular saviour are forms of gambling?

[tucson]

Speaking of saviours...

Brian has spoken of wealth and religious bubbles. I predict the next bubble to burst will be the Obama Bubble, but it will take awile for his fans to admit it.

[Brian]

Helen, sort of...

I wasn't thinking so much of gambling (though that is true also) but of the subjectivity of both the stock and religious markets. Value isn't something fixed and intrinsic, but rather largely in the mind of the beholder.

Witness the story, "How 'animal spirits' move the market."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/03/07/economy.investment.fears/index.html

Thus our sense of possessing something substantial, whether money or cosmic truth, isn't grounded in reality. It's a human conception, and these are vulnerable to misconceptions and reconceptions.

[The Rambling Taoist]

As always, Brian, very well said!

[Bob]

Right on, Tuscon - it's just a matter of time.

Once that happens, it may open the door to a more viable third party.

IMO, folks are catching on that we are most definitely on the path of economic destruction. The dollar is more than likely doomed value-wise long term!

[tAo]

Yes Tucson, and to confirm your prediction here is a mountain of evidence and info which, if investigated, will surely burst that ignorant "Obama Bubble":

Index of Articles on Obama

http://www.infowars.com/obamadeception/articles.html

[tAo]

Obamavilles in America:

http://www.infowars.com/obamavilles-in-america/

ADL Lists McLamb, Von Kleist, Banister and Others as “Extremists”:

http://www.infowars.com/adl-lists-mclamb-von-kleist-banister-and-others-as-extremists/

Bilderberger Plot to Control U.S. Food Supply (and wipe-out organic food and independent farmers):

http://www.infowars.com/bilderberger-plot-to-control-us-food-supply/

[tAo]

Obama's upcoming "Organizing for America" campaign versus the new documentary "The Obama Deception":

"The Obama Deception" is a new documentary film to enlighten people to the multi-trillion dollar banker scam and globalist takeover that is Barack Obama.

The Obama Deception documentary disassembles the carefully contrived myth surrounding Obama, a fable engineered by the captains of the New World Order and foisted upon us by the mainstream corporate media.

Obama is a meticulously crafted fraud designed to pacify a gullible public as the global elite work to institute their plan for world government, beginning with the implementation of a North American Union and a new Bank of the World that will dominate the planet through carbon taxes and brutal military force.

The Obama Deception, Alex Jones’ latest documentary film reveals how Obama, as a front man for the global elite, is moving America toward fascism and trashing our cherished constitutional republic — severely eroded under the reign of his predecessor — by destroying the Second Amendment, unleashing domestic civilian spies, engaging in warrantless wiretaps, and moving the nation toward martial law.

The Obama Deception also reveals how the international bankers engineered the global economic crisis and deviously plan to use this catastrophe to consolidate wealth and bring about their long sought after goal of world government and a totalitarian prison planet.

If you value liberty and the future of the republic — indeed, the future of humanity — it is crucial that you see this film and tell others about it. Until all are made aware, humanity will remain captive to the masters of the New World Order.

Now that Obama 2.0, also known as “Organizing for America,” will be going door to door “to map out and identify support” for the Bankster Scam 2.0, it is time to have The Obama Deception at hand — for family, neighbors, and for the Obamanoids and Obamatrons who may show up on your doorstep in need of an education.

Obama is tooling up — or rather his DNC and Wall Street handlers are tooling — a massive campaign to enlist millions of mesmerized and brainwashed supporters to “build support” for the largest, most expensive, most audacious and ultimately most debilitating borrow and spend bill in the history of the world.

It is a banker dream come true, a scam designed to ensure that your children and grand children are in hock and slaves to the international bankers for many generations to come.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped by 53.4% since its high in October 2007 and an unbelievable 31% since the inauguration of the New Savior. Since Obama entered the White House we have weathered a whopping $1.6 trillion loss in equity and a crippling contraction of the American economy by 6.2%. Unemployment jumped to 8.1% in February after increasing to 7.1% in January and 5.9% in December.

According to Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America, Obama’s budget provides a “bold blueprint for our country’s future” — which in fact will be a dismal future of third-world status and humiliating servility under the yoke of a high-tech police surveillance and control gird.

Obama’s 2.0 zombies plan to take to the street to sell you the horrendous prospect of trillions of dollars more in federal spending, oppressive taxes and untold debt — all of it designed to destroy real wealth and usher in a brave new world of serfdom and servitude to the global elite and their New World Order, under a fallacious and mawkish “yes we can” exterior.

It will be difficult if not impossible for them to soft sell this nightmare, if the people are well informed — and that’s what the video The Obama Deception does, it lays bare the cynical fraud behind Obama, a slick front man for the international bankers. The Obama Deception provides the facts needed to fight back when “Organizing for (the Destruction of) America” shows up at your door.

Read more here:

http://www.infowars.com/fight-back-against-the-banker-onslaught-with-the-obama-deception/

The Obama Deception needs to be seen by as many people as possible. To learn more about and obtain a copy of The Obama Deception Click Here:

http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/obdedvd.html

[David]

Hi tAo,

Just wondering how different it would have been if McCain was in charge(with Ms Palin at his side).....

[tAo]

Little. if any, difference at all. Contrary to what many mistakenly believe, Obama is not in control of anything, nor would McCain have been either. Obama is a puppet, bought and sold, and so is McCain.