Woke up from a fitful night of "sleep" to some good business news. Investors are worried that consumers are still a little too "skittish" to do any real holiday spending. "Skittish" apparently means "aren't over spending because they have been keeping an eye on the economy." Back when the World Trade Towers took a dive thanks to a small handful of men on a mission, Baby Bush made sure we knew the country would be okay if we only continued shopping. After this latest economic gangbang you would think investors would be more concerned about bigger picture type things and long term thinking. Nope.
Long term thinking. Far reaching goals. The big picture. Elements sorely lacking from American society where ADD seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Pathological preoccupation with the here and now at the expense of the future. But what do I know? I'm just a guy who writes stuff down and occasionally gets to say, "I told you so."
I've ranted and raved about consumerism and shortsighted behavior for decades now. I don't expect everyone to agree or listen. I don't honestly care except for the fact that this kind of thinking puts policies in place and causes meltdowns that affect my life and that I have to listen to people complain about things without ever admitting to or even admitting their own role in the problem. So be it, though.
Bill Hicks, the late great social critic (I refuse to say he was only a comedian, though he did that quite well, too), had a lot to say on the same things. He had his following while he was alive, but like Jesus, got a bit bigger in death. Some of you may have never heard of him, which is fine, too. Some people know everything about Nic Cage. Others veer off the trodden path. The fact that Cage is a household name and Hicks isn't says just about everything. It's all about content. Glenn Beck versus Noam Chomsky. Fox versus CSPAN. On and on.
During my lunch budget talk where I asked my wonderful co-worker if I was flat out wrong about what I felt on the economy and my future actions, I was informed that there was wisdom in what I was doing. I was also given another side of the entire budget issue when it came to county layoffs that I had only thought about in passing. It's been on my mind because what happens on the county level is indicative of a bigger problem, and our state politicians are a group of short-term thinkers. We both expressed our ideas and thoughts, and it was a nice conversation that bordered on a debate. It was nice to actually discuss something that wasn't related to teen vampire movies (which comes up at work a lot) and didn't involve someone sticking their head in the sand to the problems at hand.
Black Friday. It's coming soon. How skittish are you?
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