Once all the warriors assembled for the war, Barbareek saw Lord Krishna sad and weeping in a corner. Staying true to his resolve to help the one in a problem, Barbareek asked him the reason for his sadness. Lord Krishna replied that he was sad because there is one person who stands in between the result of the war. And untold hardship will come to mankind if the war doesn’t end and remains in a stalemate. Barbareek told Krishna to stop crying and resolved to kill that person who had put Krishna in that hardship. He just needed to be told the name of the person. Krishna picks up a mirror and shows it to Barbareek. That person was Barbareek himself.
Why?
Because Barbareek was endowed with untold strength and could single handedly conquer the war for either side. In the beginning, the Pandavas side was weaker, so as per his vow, he would join them. Over time however, he would destroy a big part of the Kauravas’ army, then Kauravas would become weaker and Pandavas would become stronger. To always help the weaker side, Barbareek would have to switch sides and fight from the side of the Kauravas. With time, Pandavas would become weaker. He then would have to leave Kauravas and join the Pandavas again. This would become an infinite loop and the war would never end. Lord Krishna foresaw this eventuality.
When shown the mirror, as the person who made Krishna sad, as per his vow Barbareek beheads himself and offers his head to Krishna.
Coming to the billionaires now. Newspaper industry was once the titan of the business world. With wonderful economics and political power, it enjoyed a formidable moat around its business castle. But time can erode the most powerful of the moats. Internet has upended this business upside down with the readers moving online. This was quickly followed by advertising and the marketing dollars moving online. Newspapers no longer carry the political, financial and the business muscle. Once a champion of newspapers, Buffett has sold all of his newspaper investments.
However, some billionaires around the world are trying to resuscitate newspapers – some hard-nosed capitalists are seeing opportunities and trying to infuse life into them while making money for themselves at the same time. Another species of billionaires who grew reading up these newspapers are trying to revive them by restructuring them, putting them in a non-profit foundation and endowing the foundation with substantial grants. Like Barbareek, these billionaires are on the side of the weak. Only time will tell, if they achieve their objectives.
These very interesting articles in The Wall Street Journal talks about these developments around the newspaper industry.
Not according to this oil farmer.
