Peter Leeds advises that we don't notice inflation because it happens so slowly. I would add that the ever-growing use of plastic cards makes us less conscious of the rate at which we spend money. I have backed off some on debit card use because of occasions where the process does not go smoothly. Haven't we all been aware of such incidents?
Inflation can reach a point where we definitely do notice it. Such was our world as the 1970s progressed. The 1970s! It fades back further in time. We might start viewing the decade as having been weirdly detached from anything that is real today. In this sense it's just like my generation when we looked back at the 1920s. And yet the previous reality was the total "real world" of the time.
As detached as these eras are from each other, they fade and give way to something new in such a slow fashion, it's hard to appreciate the change. If I have offered anything in my online writing, it's the point that significant cultural changes do in fact happen. Some of these changes might be termed "micro" while others are more far-reaching. Even the more far-reaching ones can escape our notice to an extent. We are all of course absorbed in the present - understandable.
When I was college-age, the "back to the '50s" craze happened with "Sha-Na-Na" and the like. If the '50s were so great, why did we let go of so much of it? Well, we relish aspects of the past that we think were endearing, never mind that "real life" had a great many inconveniences and bumps in the road.
The bad stuff doesn't lend itself to movies like "American Graffiti." Want an example? Well in any small American town, there was likely a man or more than one man with a reputation for liking children in a predatory way. Instead of doing anything about it, the reaction was for parents to warn their children.
Sha-Na-Na gave us the song "Those Magic Changes." Let's remember that changes are most often good for us.
One other common thread in my writing is the nature of the news media which influence us more than we care to admit. I use "media" as a plural term here, which is technically correct, although I do break down sometimes and follow a trend of treating it singular. Even Edwin Newman admitted that singular was becoming accepted just through general use. The English language is of course fluid. I once checked out the original Charles Dickens version of "A Christmas Carol" from our Morris Public Library, and found it almost unreadable. Of course the language was archaic.
The language evolves today so that when we hear someone say "I could care less" we hardly notice it isn't technically correct. Of course it should be "I couldn't care less." Mark Levin, the bombastic right wing radio talk show host, once said "I could care less," whereupon a later caller tried offering a correction. The caller did not seem motivated by wanting to harass Levin, though I'd suggest he deserved harassment, the guy rather just seemed sincere in wanting to clarify the expression. I smile as I recall how Levin "blew a gasket" in response. He couldn't take it.
I don't choose to listen to Levin's show but I read a thorough review of the incident on a media commentary site, I think the excellent "Mediaite." So if you all notice that I often use "media" as a singular entity, be aware I am aware of the technically correct plural form.
Whither stock market news?
Sometimes I refer to cable TV news and its oddities and trends. So today let me point out the trend of all these networks paying far less attention to the daily movements of the stock market, than they had for so very long.
Does "cable news" really have that much of a reach? Well, let me draw on the Jonathan Alter book "The Center Holds" in which he noted that, even though a tiny percentage of people consume this programming regularly, it very definitely has "reach" in the sense that it brings forward subjects that "leach" into the national conversation. Oh, and thanks to our Morris Public Library for having Alter's book available from their "new non-fiction" display. As I recall, the book reflected on the 2012 presidential race.
The political "center" did in fact seem to hold instead of veering right toward. . .Mitt Romney? Can you believe that Romney was the banner carrier for, of all things the Republican Party? That he led national Republicans at one time? Because now he has "descended" to criticizing Donald Trump unhesitatingly, which makes him a scorned soul in national Republican ranks. Aren't people amazing? Well, we were amazing when we all embraced disco music too, or the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies.
For a very long time, all the cable news networks, even HLN as I recall, had the up-to-the-minute stock market news at bottom-right on the screen. Even early risers could see the "futures" info before the market opened, I mean even at 4 a.m. Could you imagine the parents of my generation thinking for even a second about "stock market futures?" At 4 o-clock in the morning?
Over the past year or so, I have watched the fascinating trend of stock market news getting diminished on cable news. The numbers along with the little green or red arrows (for "up" or "down") are displayed not quite so much. And then, golly, they got really SMALL. These days if I'm curious I'll put on my reading glasses and crawl right up to the screen.
The media have struggled to perceive stock market fluctuations, to report on them as valid, cogent news. They have been "burned" repeatedly by reporting what seems to be a big stock market drop, like 800 points, and then within a week the market comes back up to new highs. So, the "drops" aren't really news at all? Very strange.
We can argue that the Federal Reserve always pulls whatever strings are necessary to at least keep the perception that the stock market and economy are doing OK. Experts on economics would warn on grave terms about this. Interest rates exist for a reason. Money-printing is always concerning.
A man consumed with himself
Donald Trump's fear of confronting the pandemic with immediate firm action was due to his expectation that the media would sensationalize any resulting stock market drop. Trump's concern is always ultimately about himself, as his niece is reminding us in her new book. So out of desperation to be re-elected, he and his many willing minions in D.C. are striving to keep the stock market and economy looking healthy at least on the surface, at least in a nominal way. It's buying time.
And the negative fallout of this, of course, is countless people literally dying and families shattered. Hillary Clinton would have put the scientists forward and called for sacrifice. But I guess she belongs in prison because of her emails, as so many residents of the Morris MN area feel. Am I concerned about how they'd assess yours truly? I couldn't care less.
Podcast message for today: I invite you to click on permalink below to access my "Morris Mojo" podcast in which, today notes how we on Northridge Drive have a wild turkey in our midst, a rarity! Nature can be a wondrous thing, indeed.
https://anchor.fm/brian-williams596/episodes/Wild-turkey-in-neighborhood-egshjj
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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