Shifting Baseline Syndrome

Call it a syndrome and people pay attention. Call it a habit and they yawn. Shifting Baseline Syndrome deserves the attention.

It is not an illness, and there is no injection for it. The treatment is older and slower: honest priorities, kept daily, in the presence of people who will tell you the truth.

Consider the chit fund in a small town. It survives not on contracts but on the shame of defaulting before neighbours. Reputation is the oldest collateral in India.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. No ceremony needed. Begin with the very next decision.