Life has many ups and downs. As I experience the transit of time, I realise that my reactions to the things life throws at me have changed immensely. These days, I’m more likely to roll with the punches. As teenagers, we feel intensely. Everything is new. We are emerging from a world where all serious decisions affecting life’s trajectory are made by our parents, for better or for worse. They are beyond our control. Life is punctuated by the timetables of institutions that exist in a world set to a clock in London.
As adults, we emerge into a world of our making. Will we abide by the set of institutions aligned to the London clock? Or could we, by harnessing the power of our imaginations, self-will and sheer determination, break free from the tick-tock staccato restraints of a clock on another continent, and set sail for an island of freedom and independence?
What is it in the makeup of global citizens that determines whether one is purely altruistic in one’s motivation, or conversely, motivated by malice? Could this be genetically pre-determined? Or is it in response to our environment? Is there a pivotal moment that determines which side we veer towards?
I put these questions out there because I awoke to see that the price of gold is rising; The Donald can’t pay his Secret Service and I’m contemplating all the money spent on global warmongering and citizen protection. Not to mention, Enigma just got hacked $500,000 – can anyone be truly safe?
What if we didn’t need to be protected, because everyone was good? Would there then be gradations of goodness – a validator for virtue? Would we be weighed and found wanting?
I put this question because every investment action carries a risk – more so in “invisible”, non-tangible assets like cryptocurrencies. If there were no risk of being hacked, there would be much less risk in investment. It seems as if, while I am contemplating putting the power of my intellect into assessing the best options for my hard-earned, post-tax dollars, someone else has been contemplating freedom from institutions – and deciding that the best returns on their investment of Meridian-measured time is hacking into the spoils of someone else’s freedom dreams.
So it comes back to the Darwinian paradigm - survival of the fittest. We are at once binary beings – at odds with ourselves and our world.
Invest at your peril. Keep your wits about you and watch out for the snake in the grass!
