Sisyphus’ smile

It’s an old Greek myth, interpreted a thousand times. But I’m having trouble separating this little tale from the Nasdaq numbers. So here it goes again.

First the Cliff’s Notes version of the story: Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, pisses off the gods, so he’s damned to an eternity of pushing a rock up a hill. Every time he reaches the top, it comes tumbling down. He pushes it up, down. You get the picture.

The contemporary version has our tortured investors pushing stocks, and CLEC’s in particular, back up the terrible Nasdaq hill two days ago, after the rock had fallen. Our God Greenspan started the rally when he whispered that interest rates might be cut (in some mystic cults, Greenspan’s referred to only as “He who wields markets”).

It fell again yesterday, dropping close to 100 points. But even during the drop, Teligent, which hasn’t announced anything in a month, was up 26%. Its buddies Allegiance, Level 3, Neon and CTC were carried along a little more modestly.

It’s neurotic, really--just when we’ve given up on high-tech (I was getting ready to invest in an Amish birth control company), another rally. It’s all of this hope that’s the trouble. We should throw it all away, and just leave the rock on the ground--it would make so much more sense.

But maybe we’re no good at leaving things rest, that bit of hope is all anyone needs, especially when things have gotten this bad. Even if it’s because of a head injury, the stars always seem a lot closer when you’re lying in the gutter.

The fact is it’s fun sometimes to buy into the game, and, like it or not, we all have already. But maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe the point is in pushing the stocks. Once they stay there for too long, it gets boring. Maybe if every carrier got everything they needed--if none were destroyed, raised to heaven, then thrown back down again--there’d be no point.

Maybe, just like in Camus’ interpretation, we should picture the industry smiling. Ask any of the startup CEOs that have jumped ship just to go through the hell of starting another company--it’s not getting to the top that’s fun, it’s pushing the rock. Or maybe that’s just that bit of hope talking.

David Schober is Staff Writer for Upstart. He sprung fully-formed from the forehead of Zeus. Write him at david_schober@intertec.com.