Collective Outrage II

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

Many thanks for your feedbacks. It seems I am not the only one concerned. Unfortunately I am unable to publish all the very valuable comments I received. Before sharing some or at least extracts of them, allow me to mention that many of you indicated a disturbing feeling of ever-increasing moralizing arguments in political debates. I almost get the impression that the weaker an argument the higher the moralizing part in a debate becomes. Unfortunately this phenomenon can be detected across all political parties and/or interest groups.

Let me start with David:

“Yes Stefan, I fully agree with your summation. „Collective outrage“ is indeed a new phenomenon, and it appears to be managed by special-interest groups and social media to persuade society at large to conform to the „politically correct“ or ideologically expedient consensus. Some of these mass circulations are just naive oversimplifications. Others are gross falsehoods, which repeated often enough become the „truth“ for large sectors of the population. Freedom of thought is actively discouraged, making it easier for a certain breed of politicians, economists and malcontents to manipulate public opinion.”

Thank you, David! Many of us are intrigued by the “power” modern mass media or better, the ones who know how to use them, have over public opinion.

Let me continue with Kelly:

“In general I agree with your sentiment. I would only add that people are also social creatures. As such, community is important. Community being a group of people that share enough common values and interests to cooperate with one another toward common ends. This leads me to the thought that nations of millions that attempt top down rule will always be pushing a string vs. pulling. Peaceful communities are achieved through voluntary cooperation; because people are so unique, I believe, it is unreasonable to think that millions of unique individuals will have enough in common to voluntarily cooperate on enough subjects to form a mutually beneficial cohesive society. I believe smaller communities that govern their common interests through direct democracy are better suited to peaceful existence. Alliances can be built between communities that address trade and security while leaving the majority of governance within the smaller communities. Final thought: when the will of one is imposed on the will of another, disharmony and conflict are assured.”

I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Kelly!

And now, Anton, my friend and research partner in a paper on “risk shift in pension schemes”:

“I’m so glad that more people are seeing these phenomena (Ray Dario spoke about something similar in one of his recent LinkedIn posts). This course of action has been in acceleration for the past 10 years but has much longer roots (I highly recommend the book called Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann). The core of the problem as I see it is a betrayal of trust by politicians, scientists, teachers, journalists and religious people: all the core institutions of our socio-economic order have betrayed the implied trust in them – we trust them to “guide” us in exchange for them having the freedom to do so. When that trust is placed secondary to vested interests, under the cheap veil of “nothing is true, everything is permitted” (a postmodern narrative), then things start to go downhill. I personally see no simple solution. I believe that change comes forcefully: I don’t see “leaders” coming together, putting their differences aside and dealing with the many, many issues that we face. They will play the moral card and the outrage card as long as they stay in power: power has always been the archenemy of progress for it needs rigid structures.“ 

Thank you very much Anton, always a pleasure exchanging ideas and working together with you! I hope you don’t mind me having had to cut short your extensive assessment.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not hesitate sending in your comments. Next week we will be looking at financial markets.

Please let me know your views and reply to my thoughts, but if you are sharing your viewpoints, please don’t forget (instead of hitting the reply button) to send your messages to:

smk@incrementum.li

Many thanks, indeed!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you a great day and weekend.

Kind regards.

Yours truly,

Stefan M. Kremeth
Wealth Management
Incrementum AG

Tel.: +423 237 26 60
Cell: +41 79 303 48 39
Im alten Riet 102
9494 Schaan/Liechtenstein
Mail: smk@incrementum.li
Web: www.incrementum.li