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A Friend in Need ... (of a Hand) ... is a Friend Indeed

Article · September 2001

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 A Friend in Need ... (of a Hand) ... is a Friend Indeed

Ravi Kashyap / Anais Deng

Stern School of Business, New York University

Keywords: Friend, Art, Science, Connection, Seven, Degree, Separation, Help, Spectacle, Crutch

JEL Codes: D11 Consumer Economics: Theory; B10 / B20 History of Economic Thought; I3 Welfare, Well-Being,

and Poverty; D03 Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

Incomplete Early Draft - Soliciting suggestions, omissions and other feedback.

Contents

1 Abstract 1

2 Discussion 2

3 Conclusion 3

4 References and Endnotes 3

1 Abstract

We discuss the importance of friendship, and show how this quintessential fabric links everything that has ever

existed, (exists now and will exist in the future), that is all things living, dead, buried, mummified, burnt, statued,

from the past, present and the future. This invisible thread connects everyone and everything, through space and

time, making us comrades without confines. If we are all friends, then it becomes mandatory, that we help everyone.

This brings up the question: who is in need of help? To answer, that, we consider, how artificial aids can actually

make us weak, like using spectacles all the time, or, holding onto crutches for too long. We need to judiciously

decide, when our friends really need assistance and step in, or poke up, to do the needful (Figure 1).

1
 Figure 1: A Friend in Need of a Hand

2 Discussion

A Friend, of a Friend, is a Friend, Indeed. We are used to becoming friends, with friends of our friends. And what

we know, spreads to all our friends, through word of mouth, and continues to have an affect, as they take planes to

destination far and wide. Of course, we could add creations, that are much more adept at flying, such as birds and

bees, who would then spread thoughts, through word of mouth, powered by the wings of flight, dispersing ideas

everywhere.

But as they say, even though, everything has been said, but perhaps, not by everyone to everyone (simply because,

many times we forget what we have said ourselves, and remember it only when someone else tells it to us), we

will say it again... It is said that human beings have seven degrees of separation (or we are connected to every

2
 other person, through not more than seven other people. See: (Bazzano 2009; Guare 1990 is a play that made an

captivating dramatization of this concept).

Now, it would be worth wondering, whether this figure seven, (which is a magical number, in its own right, worthy

of many later posts), is also the degrees of separation, for all things alive, dead (buried, burnt or mummified), made

into a statute, or whatever ...

The Art and Science, of embarking on this adventure, of connecting everything, from the past, present and the

future, could be Magical ...

We need to remind ourselves that: Art and Science, might be two forms of the same essence: Art is Science that

we don’t know about; Science is Art restricted to a set of symbols governed by a growing number of rules.

As most of us know, Art and Science, include, among other things: Literature, Drama, Drawing, Painting, Poetry,

Ceramics, Photography, Virtual Reality, Movies, Music, Dance, Sports, Video Games, Architecture, Mathemat-

ics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Anthropology, Oceanography, Geology, Ecology, Meteorology,

Astronomy, History, Philosophy, Linguistics, Economics, Computing, Electronics etc etc etc ...

3 Conclusion

We have discussed how friendships connects all of us, through space and time, and this makes it our duty to help

everyone we meet, anytime and anyplace.

4 References and Endnotes

1. Seven Degrees of Separation

2. Yes We Can, November 4, 2008, Obama Acceptance Speech Transcript

3. Bazzano, M. (2009). Seven degrees of separation. Adlerian year book, 97-106.

4. Guare, J. (1990). Six degrees of separation: A play. Vintage.

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