Monday, March 30, 2009

Desperation

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

- Henry David Thoreau

I look around and see the depravity that some individuals have reached and the heights that others have achieved. The notion that a person can find happiness by taking lottery winning actions, i.e. doing those things that will either give them a measure of success or return absolutely nothing is dangerous at best.

The Enron scandals of a few years ago clearly demonstrate this. Similar attitudes are to be found in foundering politicians and leaders of many fallen businesses. Placing faith in desperate and unlikely sources is a dangerous and generally unwise thing to do.