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Yeah, on the road for two weeks running. This time in Waco, Texas. Sure,
junior tennis takes you to all the high flying places in the world. Yet,
you can see things that you wouldn't see at home, or maybe in familiar
places. And you sometimes get a glimpse into something beyond the polls,
the news reports and the op-ed page.
Traveling, even for a purpose, also gives you a chance to watch people, get ideas
about things, and kind of take the pulse of the country, or at least your little
slice of it, such as it is at that point in time. One of the interesting places
on the road is the common room at the hotel. It gives you a chance to see what
people do first thing in the morning. What they eat, how they interact, and what
the general feeling of a group may be at any one time.
On this trip, we noticed several things. First, large families seem to travel
together more often than they used to. Also, people seem to like to have breakfast,
even at hotels in their pajamas. That's strange enough on its own, and makes
you wonder, except you can't really find a place to file that one under.
There were several groups of people. One was the large family, which was mostly
women with children. The snippets of conversation we caught was that they were
there for some family event. They mostly spoke to each other and paid no attention
to the television screen or to anyone else that wasn't in their group.
Among the different groups of men in the room, there was a high level of interest
on the television screen. Nope, it wasn't on Fox News or CNN. It was on CMT,
the country music video channel. It had the usual assortment of hard life stories
about relationships gone sour and folks who have a hard time making ends meet.
Yet, the packaging was glitzy. Lots of good looking young women in revealing
yet simultaneously conservative looking clothes, lots of guys in black hats surrounded
by more young good looking women in revealing yet conservative clothes and lots
of trucks, guns, and scenery, either backwoods or rugged country. You know the
drill, Clint Eastwood meets Ranger Rick.
The point is that men, especially in the 25-54 demographic were staring at the
screen, continuously. In fact they were almost in rapture. That was creepy, and
makes you wonder about what kind of lives these guys are leading. It also makes
you wonder what CMT's ad rates are and what their advertisers are getting out
of the exposure.
CMT is part of Viacom's video stable that includes MTV and all of its offshoots.
The format is about the same as MTV's original 1980's fare. Lots of videos, and
little else. It seems as if sex still sells. The question is whether anyone's
buying, what CMT sells that is.
Yet, it may be more than just sex, although that grabs your attention. Country
music is about traditional values, even if the package is now a lot slicker,
and the stories are a bit more risque', while the cliche' factor has risen tenfold.
Looking at the videos and then at the faces of the people in the room was kind
of eerie. It's as if they wanted to jump into the screen in order to escape their
current life.
The mood in the air was nearly palpable. It was as if the crowd was collectively
saying, "give us anything but bad news and politics." Give us something that
we can relate to that won't hurt and won't have consequences.
Conclusion
With the Massachussetts senate election on Tuesday, you have to wonder if by
Wednesday life won't be different in the U.S. Sure, we'll all get up and go to
work, at least those of us who are lucky enough to work.
And yes, the day to day things that we all do are likely to be there. Yet, you
get the feeling that something will give on Tuesday. And that if it doesn't people
aren't likely to change their minds about anything that they do before the mid-term
elections.
An editorial in The Wall Street Journal suggests that Tuesday could be the day
when the "backlash begins," stating in essence that if "the next political trend
the Bay State might foreshadow is a voter backlash against the Democratic Party."
The editorial notes that independent voters are the key and that "do not realize
that independents outnumber Democrats—51% of registered voters in the state are
not affiliated with a party, while 37% are registered as Democrats and 11% as
Republicans."
Think about it, the rest of the country is increasingly involved in tea parties,
at least conceptually. And if Massachussetts tips the scales, things could go
significantly lower in a hurry for the Democrats.
And if our common room observation is any indication of where the mainstream
interest is right now, it's on CMT, and on family matters, not on politics.
So one of two things is going on. One is that folks have made up their mind and
are now moving on. Or two, people have had enough of the current state of things
and are tuning out. Either way it says that people aren't paying attention to
Washington any more, and that suggests that on a certain level Washington is
irrelevant. That's called indifference, and in some ways suggests apathy.
When people don't care, they do one of two things. They stop participating, or
they decide that no matter what happens they have to make things change at any
cost, which brings to mind an old saying that describes a hero as someone who's
too cold and hungry to give a damn, which is why they do heroic deeds since the
outcome is irrelevant.
In other words, apathy is the prelude to drama, and drama is not what the world
needs right now. Yet, that is what could happen a major development of some kind,
political or otherwise.
Either way, it's worrisome, way worrisome. If the market starts to get wind of
this, it could lead to a major move of its own. The question is the direction
of the move. And if last Friday's action is any indicator of what lies ahead,
it could be a good time to make like Rip Van Winkle and take a good long nap,
right after selling all stocks.
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