I like cartoonist Guy Body whose work the NZ Herald publishes.
I bought the original of one of his cartoons which reflected public debate sparked when we published Olly Newland’s book The Day The Bubble Bursts. (You can see it in this post.)
Guy perfectly caught the very dangerous ‘group think’ phenomenon which props up markets long after they should be. It’s a normal part of markets, I think — the boom and bust cycle — and we seem to be back there again with an over-valued housing market, at least in Auckland.
I have given up making predictions, but you can still read Olly’s far more seasoned view of the market, regularly updated, on his website.
Anyway, I chuckled at this Guy Body cartoon (below) published by the NZ Herald on Wednesday …
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…which reminded me of this earlier thought I wrote about here: ‘How to protect yourself from extortion: Er, live a ‘clean’ life‘ where in part I said:
… I was warned that someone was “looking for dirt” on me and had probably hired a private detective to follow me and report on my activities and who I met etc.
I laughed. Well good luck to him, I responded. What’s he going to find? I’m not a drug dealer and I don’t have a mistress, so he’ll get bored pretty quickly.
In that situation, it seems the best defence is being unremarkable (at least in certain regards).
They say ‘The best revenge is living well’. And, in my view, living ‘clean’ is part of that. What hooks can a blackmailer get into you if you have no ugly secrets? Exactly.
Yeah, anybody looking for dirt in my life is probably going do what the surveillance operative in Guy Body’s cartoon is doing — sleeping. As noted here, I am not perfect or lily white and try never to claim to be.
But my life ain’t ‘racy’ either. Hello normal.
– P
