Aral Haykır

"time is god. timing is worship." as far as i am aware and concerned that quote belongs to me. i thought of it. deep within me and on the high temples of my logic i feel the only true concept/being that we can call god is time itself. and its prime worship is timing. timing of anything.

which i'm not very good at, but that's not the point. and i'm yet only a pupil in this religion. for now.

i just witnessed one with impeccable sense of timing while reading 1929: franklin roosevelt. as the president-elect is readying up to take up office in the tumultuous times of the great depression in 1933, us banks are being run. its gold (which is back then the backer of the greenback) being hoarded and siphoned outside the country. trust is lost and basically the whole house of cards is coming down in front of their eyes and the most powerful men in the world are almost powerless to do anything about it.

one thing they think of is a simple solution: pull the plug on the banks. call it a bank holiday and shut them off with official decree and let the system breathe a bit. hoover, the lame duck president, presses the president-elect to do so, but roosevelt is adamant, fully aware of the panic it might create he refuses to do or say anything until he takes up office officially. he basically says, you are the president, do it yourself. hoover cannot, as he knows it will look as desperation. roosevelt will not, as he knows it will be an act of taking on the responsibilities of the actions of the previous administration.

as they gauge the breadth of the banks by hours, roosevelt doesn't blink, hoover cannot move and the run on banks continues.

after taking the mantle from hoover on a gloomy washington march day, one of the first actions roosevelt does is to announce a bank holiday and to shut down all the banks in the country. now his action looks as a bold move against the weaknesses caused by the previous administration. he is perceived as the strong, willing president ready to take on any measure for the good of the country. the whole country is relieved by the decision. at least for a mere week.

that i call great timing and probably a whole bunch of other strategic praises to the man. brilliant. and nerve-wracking, i'm sure.

— Aral