Benjamin Franklin has long since been a role model to me — I consider him to be somewhat of a hero. There are a few other wise men who like Franklin have coined phrases related to certainty [1], but Mr. Franklin was probably the most prominent pioneer of turning coining phrases into coin [2].
Certainty, I believe, is something living beings instinctively crave. We choose our mates this way, we form social groups this way, inclusion and exclusion are not merely signs of success and failure — they are part and parcel of our instinctive inclination towards survival. Our brains are obviously wired this way, maybe simply because we are the survivors according to Darwin’s Law.
There is something deeply ironic about the fact that there seems to be no problem whatsoever in drumming up investment for projects that pollute the environment, while at the same time we consider ourselves to be the pinnacle of development despite the fact that we cannot seem to recognize that a healthy habitat is quite probably the most significant cornerstone to survival.
Yet offer money to dig a grave and gravediggers will show up ready, willing and able to dig it like there’s no tomorrow.
Speaking of nickel-and-dime-ing our lives, I recall that many coins (so-called “small change”) actually cost more to produce (due to the price of their metallic ingredients) than they are worth (i.e., in “face value” as opposed to in public markets). Why there continues to be so much trust and some kind of “sense of security” in such “monetary” currencies baffles me to no end. Granted, I’m also not (yet?) at the other extreme, generally caused by hyper-inflation, where people try to get rid of their cash as soon as possible.
There’s one intriguing huckster story about a guy who developed a scheme to get people to pay him money because he told them their lives are meaningless and empty. [3] In my humble opinion, there is nothing more meaningless and empty than money.
[1] Aside from Socrates, consider also more modern examples e.g. Albert Einstein’s quote “Two things are infinite: the universe and the human stupidity” (see https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Disputed ) or Frank Zappa’s quote “There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life”.
[2] I myself also plan to publish a collection of essays I have previously published at remediary.com in print / book form (if you feel like it, please “sign up” in a comment below to receive an autographed copy when they become available 😉 )
[3] See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Worldwide
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