The awful uncertainty of the future

December 13, 2018 | Joshua Opheim


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Pessimism is always present but we must remember, it is this pessimism that is intended to draw upon our deepest emotions to make illogical decisions so those that act logically can prey on those that don't.

"It is a gloomy moment in history. Not in the lifetime of any man who reads his paper has there been so much grave and deep apprehension; never has the future seemed so dark and incalculable.
 
In France the political cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty.
 
England and the British Empire is being sorely tried and exhausted in a social and economic struggle, with turmoil at home and uprising of her teeming millions in her flung Empire.
 
The United States is beset with racial, industrial and commercial chaos, drifting we know not where.
 
Russia hangs like a storm cloud on the horizon of Europe - dark, menacing and foreboding.
 
It is a solemn moment, and no man can feel indifferences, which happily, no man pretends to fell in the issue of the events.  Of our own troubles, no man can see the end..."
The words written above paints a gloomy picture of what's going on, doesn't it? The writer obviously is being weighed down from the current problems of the world and it ready to sell himself and the world "short".  Did I say current?  Sorry I was mistaken as these words were written a long time ago.  
 
These words came before the 2008 financial crisis, the 2000 tech bubble, before World War II, before the Great Depression of the 30's, before the First World War, before the Panic of 1891, and before the US Civil War in 1865.  These words first appeared in an editorial in Harper's Magazine in October 10th, 1847!  That is 171 years ago!
 
Pessimism is always present but we must remember, it is this pessimism that is intended to draw upon our deepest emotions to make illogical decisions so those that act logically can prey on those that don't.