I Choose Hope...

Many people have no idea who Tom Clancy was, nor what he did.  He was neither a politician, a philosopher, or a hero.  He was very simply a voice of hope, when none existed.  Who exactly was Tom Clancy you ask?  Well, Mr. Clancy was an American radio personality best remembered for his distinctive 1971 remix of the 1965 popular song “What the World needs Now is Love”. 
His rendition came at a time when the despair felt by Americans seemed overwhelming.  The War in Vietnam was not going well, and social unrest was seemingly a daily occurrence in every major city. 
At that moment in time, Mr. Clancy chose to focus on hope not hate, he chose to focus on tolerance rather than intolerance.  He chose the right message at the right time, and made one of the most iconic recordings in the 1970’s that is certainly applicable for today.
I’m sure we all can agree that in the annals of history, 2020 is likely to go down as one long, drawn out, miserable dumpster fire of a year.  Not only did we battle (and are still battling) with an epidemic, mix in massive amounts of social unrest, economic instability, and is if this dumpster fire needed any more fuel, add in a toxic and contentious Presidential election, where partisan politics is not only dividing friends, but sometimes whole families.  Mix that all together, and you get 2020 – a.k.a. “The imperfect year of the perfect dumpster fire”.
With unyielding pressure from all forms of social media, from the headlines, and even from family or friends, it seems as though we are buried under an avalanche of fear and negativity.  Tolerance has succumbed to intolerance.  Hope has been replaced by hopelessness.  
Well, today, I choose to follow Mr. Clancy’s’ message of Love and Hope rather than hopelessness and intolerance.  I choose the light over the dark, and to rejoice in today and the promise of tomorrow rather than to live in the past.  
How did we ever lose sight of how much better our lives have gotten?  Why did we forget to appreciate how far we’ve come as humans?  
Why have we forgotten that over the last 2 centuries (a small blip in the timeline of human history) that human civilization has seen massive reductions in extreme poverty, huge advances in literacy, more political and economic freedoms, where we are living longer than at any other time in history, and that our global infrastructure for educating mankind, has NEVER been greater?  
Two hundred years ago, only a privileged few were not living in extreme poverty.  For all the ills of capitalism and industrialization, increased productivity made it possible to steadily lift more and more people out of extreme poverty.  As recent as 1950 75% of the world were still living in extreme poverty.  But today, those living in extreme poverty are now less than 10%.  Where’s that headline?  
Only two hundred years ago where only a few of the elite were able to read, has today become   8 out of every 10 people on earth are literate.  Once again, no mention of that anywhere.
The progress made in human health is simply astonishing over the last two centuries.  In 1800, more than 40% of the world’s newborns died before the age of five.  Modern medicines, in addition to our increased knowledge of germ and diseases, have increased the average life expectancy from 32.5 years to 78.9 years.  Global life expectancy has more than doubled in 200 short years.  Never before in our history has that happened.  
In spite of the rather combative partisan political environment we are currently mired in, just 200 years ago a majority of the worlds’ humans lived under dictatorships and autocracies.  Today, 4 out of 5 still living in autocracies live in China Today, democracy and political freedom are the norms.

Transcript

Brooke Miller  0:00  
Welcome to the emotional wealth podcast where Certified Financial Planner speaker and consultant lawn Brodsky will discuss strategies that can help you to successfully navigate today's challenging financial environment. And using emotional discipline and focus, you'll discover how he educates his clients to stay on track with their financial goals. Now, here's law.

Lon W Broske, CFS, CFP  0:31  
Hi, and welcome to our latest podcast called emotional wealth. My name is lon Brodsky, I'm a certified financial planner, with pines wealth management, St. Louis. And remember, our goal in doing these podcasts is very simple. We want to help educate investors. We firmly believe that an educated investor makes better, more intelligent and less emotional decisions within their financial plan that's ultimately going to help keep them on track with their financial goals. Well, it's funny because the name of this podcast is emotional wealth. And that's really what I want to focus on today. Because I think we can all agree that 2020 has been one absolute dumpster fire of a year, started the year off relatively well, right. Between January and really midway through February, we're feeling pretty good about the year, we're feeling pretty good about where we were, we just saw the markets and many of you who are who have accounts that are within investments, not just necessarily with the bank. But if you have an investment account, you saw some nice appreciation to start off the year, economy was firing on all cylinders, by all measurement. So we were feeling pretty good. And then Yep, you know what happened? I don't have to tell you that right. You know, COVID. The market, s&p 500 specifically dropped 34% in 33 days, if there was ever a definition of panic, that February to March slide in the s&p 500. That was it. There was your moment of panic, no other reason to look anywhere else for the definition of panic. You saw it, you experienced you had investments this year. You saw it, then you throw in a presidential election. That is That was very contentious, to say the least. And I'm being kind here, I could use a lot more creative adjectives. But I will say very contentious in the amount of social media that we are bombarded with, it just seems like for me anyway, personally speaking, that this was probably feeling wise, the worst that I've ever felt during a presidential election, I felt we were so divided. What I wanted to focus on in this podcast, specifically, a perfect four letter word for what we're going through right now. And that four letter word would be hope to have hope in the future, regardless of which way you lean politically, regardless of how you feel whether or not you believe, you know, COVID is a real thing, whether it's not I certainly do. I've known loved ones that have been directly affected by COVID not are threatened by COVID. I know the epidemiologist, beginning of the year, were giving us numbers that were downright scary, which whether or not led to the panic, I don't know. But the numbers that they were given us, certainly instilled fear in all of us. And the pressures from social media during the fall election, right that led censorship at Facebook was accused of doing Twitter was accused of doing you know, I don't know whether to believe all that. I just know that hope right now is a pretty darn good word and a strong word that we should be thinking about. And we should be using more in our conversations back in 1971. gentleman by the name of Tom Clancy, and I know that doesn't ring a bell. He was simply a voice of hope. When none existed in 1971. He made the song what the world needs now is love was originally done in 1965. Mr. Clancy, read it in 1971 is actually a top 40 hit. If you listen to that song, if you listen to the words, if you listen to the message, it's so applicable for today, even though it was made over 40 years ago, what was happening in 1971, social unrest, economic instability, political infighting, Vietnam War, rioting. That's what was happening in 1971. So I want you to take a moment and listen to Tom song. I think it's really important for you to turn off the social media for a moment. Well, not this social media. I mean, it wasn't even a podcast. You don't want to do that. But turn off. Facebook, turn off Twitter, turn off Instagram. Listen to Tom's message.

Tom Clancy  5:16  
What is segregation?

iterator is

what is bigotry?

oh no what degree?

Unknown Speaker  5:26  
What does

Tom Clancy  5:28  
hatred mean?

I don't know.

What is prejudice?

I think is when

I can see many many motorcycles coming by

to pick up the motorcade, something has happened here.

Lon W Broske, CFS, CFP  7:10  
Something as long as something is terribly wrong. I live behind the

Tom Clancy  7:16  
hospital.

The interrupt is programmed to bring you a special bulletin. Dallas, Texas flash. Apparently official, president john F. Kennedy died at 1pm. Central Standard Time where you

are with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

No one can be certain who next would suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed.

The amendment and we've been here too long already.

My thanks to all of you and gone to Chicago

Lon W Broske, CFS, CFP  8:38  
and let me open shot

Tom Clancy  8:45  
is that possible? Oh my god. Senator Kennedy has been shot.

Apparently,

like it or not,

we live in times of danger and uncertainty. That is the way he lived. That is what he needs us. My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in depth beyond. But he was might be remembered simply as a good and decent man saw wrong and tried to write it. Saw suffering and tried to heal it. So I tried to stop him and take him to his rest today. Right. That's what he was. As to us,

what he wished for others

who someday come to pass

for all the world.

Unknown Speaker  10:08  
As he said many times, many parts of this nation, those he touched, and who sought to touch him. Some men's see things as they are and see why I dream things that never were, and say, Fine.

Tom Clancy  10:56  
What is segregation?

I don't know what is. What is bigotry? I don't know what

degree is. What does

hatred mean?

Unknown Speaker  11:11  
I don't know.

Tom Clancy  11:14  
What is prejudice?

Lon W Broske, CFS, CFP  11:20  
I think it's Wednesday, my sick.

Unknown Speaker  11:26  
Wow. That's powerful, isn't it? And at the time, I mean, I was only a couple years old at the time. But when I was younger, I didn't appreciate the context of what that song was about. It's about love. It's about having hope. It's what we all need today. Because the unyielding pressure from social media and the headlines and, and in conversations with our own family and friends, right? I've seen my own family get politically divided with this election, and even our own personal thoughts on COVID. We all know that COVID is real. And the epidemiologists were giving these scary projections at the beginning of the year, they're frightened us all. And most of those projections didn't come to fruition. Now, I'm not going to debate the reason why they didn't come to fruition, right. It's not my job. But I choose hope. I choose a direction of love and hope, rather than hopelessness and intolerance. I choose the light over the dark, and to rejoice in the fact that today is better than yesterday. And the promise of tomorrow is going to be better than today. How do we ever lose sight of how good we have it? Because we're not focusing on where we've been. And that's a mistake. If you realize that over the last two centuries, which is, by the way, just a small blip in the timeline of humanity, that the human civilization has seen massive reductions in extreme poverty. They've seen huge advances in literacy. We've got more political and economic freedoms than we've ever had ever, in our existence. As a civilization, and we are living longer today than any other time in history, we have more global infrastructure for the education of human beings than has ever existed. Where is that headline? Where are we talking about that in our family discussions, the family table, instead, we're talking about divisions, we're not talking about hope of where we were compared to where we are at today. Just 200 years ago, only a few privileged we're not living in extreme poverty just 200 years ago. And for all the ills of capitalism and industrialization, which there are many no one disputes that it's not perfect, but increase productivity has made it possible to steadily lift more out of extreme poverty in 1950. As much as 75% in the world, we're still living in extreme poverty. Today, it's less than 10. Where's that headline? I didn't read that anywhere. What I read was hopelessness. If we don't get the outcome that we want, I didn't read the headline that only just a few 100 years ago, only the elite are able to read. And today, eight out of every 10 people on earth are literate. No mention of that anywhere. I can't find that in any headline. In 1800, more than 400 of the world's newborns died before the age of five. modern medicines have changed that not only have the medicines changed, but we've also increased our knowledge of German diseases. We went from 32 and a half average life expectancy of 1800. To now where it's 78.9%, double the life expectancy in 200 years. Imagine what the next 200 years will bring 200 short years, and the global life expectancy has more than doubled, despite the fact that we had a very contentious election and still do have a very contentious election because the losing side is not yet conceded. And again, that's Not my business to know who's going to concede and why they're going to my objective here with you today is to understand that just 200 years ago, a majority of humans in this world lived under dictatorships, and a ticker sees. Today, four out of five living in a democracy is live in China, dictatorships and ticker Caesar a thing of the past. You don't find dictatorships very often, democracy and political freedom are are the norms today were 200 years ago, that was the exception. Again, no headline, no headline of hope. Please don't misconstrue my comments today of depreciating our current struggles, and the current times that we live in the social unrest that we have, I firmly believe, when I choose hope, to look at our current struggles, and our social unrest as another step in the maturation of the human race, I would rather choose hope in this moment than fear, hope that believes in a future where human spirit will continue to thrive, will continue to overcome whatever ills that society has bestowed upon it. I believe in the future. And I believe in the great American companies, that regardless of who's president, regardless of what the environment is, regardless of the social struggle, that the American companies will do what they've always done. Throughout history, now adapt and grow. I believe in the human spirit, to do what it is always done, adapt and grow. Despite these difficult times, it will endure.

Lon W Broske, CFS, CFP  16:42  
I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. I can't wait to see what this huge future holds for your investments in for this great country. Because I'm hopeful in the future. And Tom Clancy was right. what the world needs now is love. And perhaps now more than ever. Thank you for listening. Look forward to our next podcast. Understand that we at pines wealth, are going to remain steadfast in our commitment to our clients, and the trust that you have placed in me, your advisor, I'm going to ensure that we remain on track, regardless of who's president and the results of these elections. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. Appreciate you. You being here. Don't forget to follow us on social media, Facebook, and Twitter. Email us at podcast at pints wealth.com. Call us 1-800-467-6567 that's 1-800-467-6567 Be sure to like us on your favorite podcast service.

Enjoy your week and we'll talk to you soon

Transcribed by https://otter.ai