I expect I will catch grief from friends who misinterpret this posting. Also expect some will be just plain mad at me. But as a verse in a song goes, "I have proved the things I needed proving and lost the friends I needed losing." So if this causes me to lose some friends then I needed losing them. I also expect some people will say what the heck does this have to do with Small Town Investor. Plenty as I will show.
The thought about this posting got started a few weeks ago when I got a return e-mail from someone who got so mad at me for a comment I made in a e-mail they told me to take their e-mail out of my database and do not correspond anymore. The e-mail got started when a group of like minded friends in a town I used to live in, but currently am not living in were exchanging e-mails about current events. The e-mails were basically everyone taking turns making merry of the situation. I opined with my own humor about the subject and hit reply all and got the return e-mail about the person no longer wanting to be a friend. What did I put in the e-mail? These exact comments, "maybe everyone is out watching American Idol". Seems innocent I know, but the person took it as an offense to American Idol show. I sent an apology that the comment had been taken incorrectly and apologized for any confusion. Sorry that was not good enough, the person was upset with me enough they wanted no more correspondence FOREVER. I have deleted the person from my list by request. Seems silly, but in America of today being "offended" is something everyone takes as a right since everyone is a "victim".
Now I am happy Scotty won American Idol, good kid, good morals, love his faith based life, and local boy. But frankly I did not look at a single minute of the shows. This does not mean I do not care about the show, it means I have things in what I believe are proper perspective. My friend Bob Lee, from Bob Lee Says.com, has a similar perspective on what he calls "board monkeys". Bob Lee and I are fans of the North Carolina Tarheels athletic teams. We pull for them, enjoy their victories, might even go to a game or two now and then, but once the game is over we move on. But with many Carolina fans who inhabit the message boards on the Carolina web sites live and breathe this stuff. The idolize the players and think life is made better just being associated with the team and players. If they see a player or better yet get to meet a player their life is made. Literally they worship the Carolina basketball team. Ditto this for any local sports team (yes Wolfpackers you too), as there are people who literally live for being a fan of their team.
I believe the person who exchanged e-mails with me is just that way about American Idol show, she literally worships the show and winners. God help me if I had said one thing she perceived in her opinion the be offensive to Scotty. Many people today feel similarly about movie stars, sports players, and even politicians. I have said the election of Barack Obama had elements of people going out and winning " American Idol". The idea was let's all get together and go vote and win for Obama, many could have cared less about his policies or positions. This is not to make light of those policies, this is to point out that some people literally worship Obama like they do other celebrities.
My father told me when I was young and foolish about the Carolina basketball team that I needed to get my head straight. He had two axioms I remember to this day. One, "if it does not put food on the table it is not important". Two, " If it will not matter one year from now it is not important". What he was saying was past making a living, loving your family and friends, and putting God first, everything else was to to enjoy and once enjoyed life is to move on to what is important. Unfortunately many people today can not do that. Maybe because many have never really had concern about getting the next day's meal or necessities. My father having been raised in the Great Depression, a real depression unlike today's, and having fought in the Second World War understood where one should place their priorities.
Society today has traded real heroes for just celebrities, real honor for just fame, real success and achievement for just popularity. Simply put we have traded once great American Ideals for American Idols and I am not talking about the television show. I expect a good part of this is people no longer have a faith in a supreme being and are looking for just that in other ways. Oh, they go to church or whatever building you go too, but they do not really participate in a true belief that things will turn out well if they just have faith. Lots of church attendance today is for entertainment of the person, not the worship of God. I opine to my wife that when children sing or do a skit in church today some people applaud. Excuse me but it was not a performance, it was meant to be for the worship of God. Let's not get into the fact the event turns in a camera light picture show as well. Maybe I will be called old fashioned, but church IS for worship of God.
Likely the last real heroes left in our society are the military and I thank God for that as these people are essential to keeping us free. However there are really no heroes left anywhere else in society. I honestly can not name more than a handful of politicians today who are "statesmen", and our current president is not one. Where have all them gone? I expect they have done what many have done, become celebrities to remain popular with the people of the country who seem want that over real achievement and success. Look at sports stars, popular music stars, and movie stars, they have become nothing but fame and fortune producing machines, few consider living a life of integrity anymore as important. Hedonism run amuck. There is little wonder that young people who "idolize" these people are doing the same.
All this is to say something has got to change with character traits and the worship of fame and celebrity. If we do not get back to understanding people possessing such virtues as delayed gratification, the personal satisfaction for working hard to achieve success, and appreciating honor in real heroes all of which are necessary to function of a democratic republic we will lose this great experiment that our forefathers bequeathed us. Trust me, just in case you have not read any history, this IS an experiment in self government. It is truly the last best hope of mankind as one great statesman Lincoln noted. As yet self government has not worked anywhere else on this planet. All of our forefathers knew that fame and celebrity were fleeting and a free society needed people with principled discipline in their character to survive.
Now to how this affects investors and the stock market. Without those positive traits as noted above all we will do as investors is day trade and wish and want for immediate profits to spend and enjoy immediately. The stock market will become completely what it already is trending towards and that is a gambling palace. There are places where trading options is no longer about insurance for commodities or stocks, but making a quick buck and moving on. Computer programming trading is just that. Regular Americans will grow tired of this manipulation and the markets as they are supposed to function will fail.
This brings me back to Scotty and American Idol. Scotty has those traits which are needed today, taught by parents who are passing them on down, who got them from parents who passed them down too I expect. It all started back in a hot sweaty room where some people we today call "forefathers" designed this great experiment in self government in July 1776 and it now comes down to us. To us and weather we will preserve liberty or let some elites decide our future. The key here is not Scotty, but how do you fit in here with Scotty, did you enjoy his real success and accomplishments in life BEFORE American Idol fame or just after he became a celebrity. How about any of you who actually knew Scotty BEFORE he became famous, did you even give him the time of day? Would you have run out to be in person at his homecoming if he had not been a celebrity? According to the Raleigh News and Observer it seems he is NOW getting all kinds of attention from people he knew, but would shun him earlier. Access your own situation, but understand your actions speak louder than your words. Are you really working at real achievement, real success, and real honor represented by once great American Ideals or the immediate gratification of American Idols.
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