tulipmania

I can't look at a tulip without thinking of Michael Pollen's delightful book The Botany of Desire in which he recounts the unbelievable tale of the tulip's history. In a nutshell: tulip speculation was all the rage in 17th century Holland (not unlike the speculative housing bubble of our current generation). At the height of the craze, single tulip bulbs were selling for ungodly, unimaginable sums & people were staking everything in order to purchase just one of these precious commodities. Until one day the bubble burst (a tulip failed to fetch it's asking price on the auction & the whole house of cards came tumbling down thereafter) & left many in possession of nothing more than worthless flowers & the shirts on their backs.

What amused me most about the tale was how in the aftermath of the tulip craze & bust there was a period of violent backlash against tulips. Yes, that's right. It was the tulip's fault. People were slashing tulips to the ground, mutilating stalks & tearing petals & getting even with nature for driving them to such folly. It was said that were it not for the great beauty of the tulip, men would not have been so foolish as to risk all to possess them.

I wonder that humanity has changed so little from these early days. I think about how many times I have heard various pundits proclaim that "we had no idea that housing prices would fall!" Reaaaally? -you had no idea?? -you thought quite seriously that housing prices would continue to rise exponentially annually forever??? -you've never seen a bust before??? Reaaaally? The selective ignorance is astonishing. Why smart people play dumb puzzles me.