The New Porn

To quote a washed up Russian comedian still doing 2 shows a day at a theater named after the same titular washed up performer in a town known for late shows at 4:30 in the afternoon, "What a country!" What a country indeed. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. And what bravado am I referring to? I'm talking about the guts to open up your monthly investment statement, that’s what!

If your portfolio has been shrinking of late you are not alone and probably suffer existential feelings of insignificance with actual loss of physical mass a distinct possibility commensurate to the reduction of your balance sheet. This is what defines Americans in the United States of America, net worth. If you do not have any it doesn't matter even if you've found a cure for cancer, you're nothing.  Lose 50% of your net worth; lose 100% of your self worth!

The huzzahs in this country go to the men and women who can rack up the zeros. We venerate them and worship at the hems of their P & L statements. They are the real stars. And yet for most of us this idol worship never pays off because we don't have what these titans have, the unidirectional undauntedness to get up every morning and, as God is their witness, make another million dollars.

A generation ago the Gates and Buffets of the world would quietly go about their business without the world slavering for a wink or nod. They were puppeteers who pulled the strings from behind the curtain. It was believed that big personalities were the bane to a company’s bottom line. Captains of Industry strode around their domains in slippers barely causing a ripple in the minds of the consumer. Donald Trump changed all that. Today, in the age of celebrity titans not only exercise stock options in full public view, but exercise their egos as well.

Financial reporting has replaced pornography as our dirty little fetish. All day long we obsess over the tickers, the inside scoops, the Armageddonous or pie-in-the-sky predictions as so called experts and pundits submerge us under an avalanche of empty speculation.

And what is the meaning of it all?  “Something is holy to everyone” as one theologian wag put it. The sad part is holiness has morphed from a cosmological consideration to a quantifiable one…the value of the local sports team, the gross of the latest blockbuster. This new porn is just another way to reduce daily life into manageable bites while simultaneously narrowing down experience.  It has very little to do with the value of quality or artistic expression. The capitalist system was not designed for that.  Most other worthy endeavors are kicked to the curb as exercises. The creative arts, teaching, social work, careers with not a lot of financial upside struggle to maintain viability.

So what do you do when you don't give a shit about mutual funds, IPOs or moving millions of units and instead would rather exalt like Walt Whitman in the presence of a leaf of grass? In this country without enough venture capital you’ll never get it off the ground.