misery index
Misery is a state of suffering and want that is the result of poverty or affliction. Synonymous with the word distress which is from Middle English destresse, from Anglo-French destresce, from Vulgar Latin *districtia, from Latin districtus, past participle of distringere. Distress it self means the seizure and detention of the goods of another as pledge or to obtain satisfaction of a claim by the sale of the goods seized, with specific reference to 13th century trading ships, hence the phrase “a ship in distress”. Definitions…precision that is overrated and absent of an emotive touch. Misery, a word associated with an emotional state, yet all its definitions are all related to wealth, or more precisely, the lack of it, and the loss of it.
It is my theory that the definitions are too strict, conforming to a pattern, standard, or convention. in direct conflict to my personality, and thus is absolute blasphemy (spot the pun). Products of overly educated scholars who have been institutionalised into a single line of thought. another word next to it completely alters its defintion, rendering it inaccurate. and it is quite funny, maybe hilarious…our attempts at defining the world around us.
obviously the tree of the knowledge of good and evil didn’t have enough knowledge for all of us, the pride of evolution and the pinnacle of theoretical understanding. even at the apex of the tower of babel, our shortcomings are amplified and put on show, for all to mock, and at the same time, we mock ourselves.
misery index: the sum of the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation used as an economic indicator.
funny how index and misery are words with absolutely no relation to each other, but when put together, totally transforms its combined meaning.
even economics has her way of mocking me. like i care about the rate of unemployment or the rate of inflation.
misery is utterly misunderstood.
currently, most obviously, the misery index is non-existent.
Leave a Reply