Of course it is. But Athor reminded me of the old philosophical chestnut of Thargola's Sword. Which we use - methaphorically, I mean - to smite the more complex premise, when we're trying to decide between two hypotneses. It's simpler to go looking for a dark sun than it is to have to produce an entirely new Theory of Universal Gravitation.
The stock market has crashed three separate times, or haven't you noticed? Sensible investors dont really believe the world is coming to an end, but they think other investors might start to think so, and so the smart ones sell out before the panic begins - thus touching off the panic themselves. And then they buy back afterward, and sell again as soon as the market rallies, and begin the whole downward cycle all over again.
no amount of smooth talk was persuasive enough to break through barriers that were so determinently maintained. He had long ago decided that no worthwhile woman could ever be seduced; you could present the possibility to them, but you had to leave it ultimately to them to do the seducing for you, and if they weren't so minded, there was very little you could do to change their outlook.
It had been a pretty good world, he thougth. Not perfect, far from it, but good enough. Most people had been reasonably happy, most were prosperous, there was progress being made on all fronts - toward deeper scientific understanding, toward greater economic expansion, toward stronger global cooperation. The concept of war had come to seem quatntly medieval and the age-old religious bigotries were mostly obsolete, or so it had seemed to him.
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