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A little Voltaire

I found myself in a room this afternoon with a number of aphorisms on the wall.

No, it was not a men’s room. :-)

One was a quote by Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet [1694-1778]): “It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” (“Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort.”)

I flashed back to a couple of my direct managers in high tech about whom I thought, “So sure. So confident. So WRONG!

If you find yourself in similar situations, in which pervasive corporate group-thinking of a shared delusion is the prevailing pattern of thought (the recent global financial meltdown is only one example), you may find yourself at risk for your job (don’t worry, the “wrong” people will keep theirs). :-) You might even join the 760,000 people in the U.S. who have lost their jobs in THIS YEAR ALONE, so far! In California, the unemployment rate has reached 7.7% (without considering the under-employed part-time employees and the folks who have given up entirely).

(Note added November 08, 2008: After the dramatic increase of unemployment in October, the number of people who have lost their jobs in th U.S. in just this year alone has LEAPED to 1.2 million people! The California unemployment rate for October will be released on November 21, along with those of other states.)

If you do receive such a VERY well-disguised blessing (and it is a blessing!) from the self-deluded “wrong,” you may want to take advantage of a resource that I offered earlier. It is important to keep thinking clearly and not “buy into” the wrong thinking of the folks who laid you off.

We shall ALL need a little humor to make it through the next 6 months. Good luck.

-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™

You can view higher-resolution photos (*generally* 7-30 megabytes, compressed) at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. Apparel and other gifts decorated with some of our most popular photos can be ordered from the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Store on CafePress®. Both Shutterfly™ and CafePress® ship to most international locations worldwide! If you don’t see what you want or would like to receive an email when new photos are up on the site, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

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