Observations

I spend my day analyzing markets. Looking at hundreds of graphs. Trying to identify relationships between financial and economic variables. It is a lot of fun. However, it is exhausting.

Several years ago, as an escape from my world, I began to look at how the mind controls the body. I discovered Qigong. The next step was to read about Zen. Then Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. I found myself deep into the world of philosophy.

Such books as “God” by A. Waugh and “A History of God” by K. Armstrong gave me a sense of history on how the idea of God evolved through time. They explain the role of philosophers in shaping our understanding of the world and our thought process.

“Sophie’s World” by J. Gaarder is the history of philosophy in a novel form. It is easy to read. It gives a review of the main philosophers since the Greek thinkers.

The bibliography of these books is a good source of new readings and new areas of investigation. It took thousands of years for us to think about the world the way we do now. Thinking has evolved.

When I go to Rome I buy several philosophy books (in Italian, of course) that are known to be controversial because they provide a different perspective on what we believe. Bertrand Russell is clearly one of them.

Now I am reading Nietzsche. The book is “The Anti-Christ”. It is written in a violent style. Nietzsche strongly disapproves how the church is giving hope to the poor by convincing them they will enter God’s Kingdom. This is a lie, according to him, because no one has ever seen this so-called kingdom. The church should give them the tools to fight reality and improve their status instead of subjugating them using the concept of sin, according to Nietzsche.

I like to talk about all these ideas with my friend SNS. He listens. He smiles. “It’s all mythology,” he concludes, sipping a cup of tea.

(This Observations appeared in the 3/10/2003 issue of The Peyer Dag Portfolio)

George Dagnino, PhD