BREAKING NEWS
September 28, 2006
It Can be Cool to Lose Your Cool, Ask Clinton
Can you really get even by getting mad?
That's one of the questions of the week as we evaluate and re-evaluate Bill Clinton's finger-pointing, knee-poking interview with Chris Wallace on Fox.
The first debate, of course, was whether Clinton had actually lost it at all -- a ''full-bore tantrum,'' one conservative columnist called it -- or knew exactly what he was doing.
But splitting the difference for a moment, the interesting issue becomes: Can public anger, -- in politics, business and elsewhere -- be a GOOD thing?
Under the right circumstances, yes, say some analysts of social behavior.''It's more important than ever to cut through the clutter,'' says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale's School of Management. ''All of us are so over-managed these days. Public figures have platoons of protectors. It's more important than ever to show authentic, real emotion.''
Sonnenfeld believes Clinton's anger was genuine, and yet intentionally uncensored. And he says Clinton has told him personally in the past -- he counts himself as one of the former president's many acquaintances -- ''that when your critics are wrong, fire back on all cylinders. Take it on with full force and don't let up.''
Associated Press |
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Anger: It's 'A GOOD Thing'
By: Pete Kendall, September 28, 2006 |
It’s the opposite of 1985; people are hungry for the negative. Social mood always accommodates society with a disposition that conforms to its direction.
The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, September 2006 |
 Last month’s issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast covered some of the ways in which the culture is embracing bear market traits like laziness, exhaustion, depression and pessimism (see Additional References below). With this largely positive response to Bill Clinton’s heated Fox News exchange, we can add anger to the list. The article goes on to quote Pualine Wallin, Ph.D., the author of Taming Your Inner Brat, which came out in 2001. In her book, Wallin writes about anger as a destructive emotion that causes bad decision and needs to be subdued. “These bratty thoughts, feelings and behaviors have long outlived their usefulness,” writes Wallin. But there also Chapter 11, “Circumstances That Give Your Inner Brat the Edge.” If she wants to sell more books in the coming environment, she should change the title to Releasing Your Inner Brat, maybe flesh out chapter 11 and out everything else about "anger management." |
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Additional References
September 2006, EWFF
In some ways, it’s not hard to spot the onset of a big bull or bear market. When the last bull market was a few years old, for instance, The Elliott Wave Theorist pointed to the jogging fad, which had turned into a full-blown craze for physical self-improvement, the blockbusting popularity of the movie Rocky and success-oriented self-help regimens as cultural evidence of the new mood. The following quote is from The Elliott Wave Theorist in August 1985:
The first big victory for the positive mood forces in general was the public adoption of ‘bootstrap’ psychology. It was as if people had tired of the negative and were determined to pull themselves, each as an individual, out of that mood.
As The Elliott Wave Theorist explained at the time, people simply said, “I’m sick of hearing the negative!” Conversely, one of the first big victories for the negative mood forces is a spate of books that openly attack basic bull market traits such as speed, materialism and happiness for its own sake. These volumes include Doing Nothing, In Praise of Slowness and Out of Control: Finding Peace for the Physically Exhausted and Spiritually Strung Out. “The pendulum has now swung the other way,” says the author of Slowness. “Speed is doing more harm than good.” USA Today reveals that employees’ emotional health, “a topic that once seemed incongruous with the survival-of-the-fittest corporate arena,” is “no longer taboo.” The list of “mood disorders” that employers are advised to “watch for” is strikingly similar to the components of bear market mood listed on pages 228-229 of The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior. It includes, “persistent sadness,” “loss of interest in or pleasure from activities,” “decreased energy,” “feelings of hopelessness or pessimism,” “feelings of guilt,” “thoughts of death,” “irritability,” “excessive crying” and “difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions.”
It’s the opposite of 1985; people are hungry for the negative. On Monday, The New York Times announced the latest downer title: Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit saying “these are ideal times” for its release. The book aims to “rescue pessimism from the philosophical sidelines, where it has been shunted by optimists of all ideologies.” The NY Times reviewer describes the book as “seductive, because pessimists are generally more engaging and entertaining than optimists.” The mindset will fit perfectly with a shrinking money supply and a retrenching demand for housing and luxury goods. It’s no accident. Social mood always accommodates society with a disposition that conforms to its direction. |
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