Chasing "The Latest Thing"

The Zman notes today that the COVID Thing is over, what with the Trump judge invalidating it and the TSA immediately removing the mask mandate from the air travel system. "The CDC appears to have conceded the point and will not appeal."

[T]hese mass hoaxes that have become a feature of life. People wake up and see that everyone is now into the latest thing. Maybe that thing is outrage over a police shooting or maybe it is some new abstract concern. All of the right people are on their soapboxes and all of the best people are following along with them. It is only normal for people to want to do the right thing and support the latest thing.

So what's going to the the next "Latest Thing?" Obviously Ukraine. When will it all end?

When the current thing is real suffering, people will remember all the previous things were lies.

You mean like ditching fossil fuels and tossing gas prices into the stratosphere?

But I think we need to understand and accept the notion of The Latest Thing. I'd say it is a fundamental part of humans as social animals. As in flocks of birds. And herds of antelope.

Some Canada goose starts squawking and moments later launches itself into the air. And most of the other Canada geese in the area stop grazing on grass and launch themselves into the air as well. Or don't.

Why do so many of the nice liberal ladies in North Seattle decide to buy an electric car? Because they believe in the "Climate Change Thing." Do they know a thing about Science™? Or climate? Or variations in the Earth's orbit? Or the various theories in respect of Ice Ages? Not a thing.

And yet all over the western world educated women all feel good about their commitment to fighting climate change by appropriate shopping and voting. And when you talk to them, there is not a shred of doubt or skepticism about climate: merely a cheerful confidence. They accept the Latest Thing and feel good about accepting it.

In men, I think, the relevant instinct is the rush to join the colors when an enemy has been declared. That's what a lot of young men felt after 9/11. And the old geezers like me felt good about the CIA riding horses on the steppe in Afghanistan and the army invading Iraq and teaching Saddam Hussein a lesson. At the time.

And I dare say that, for the ordinary middle class American Donald Trump's 2016 Make America Great Again campaign was The Latest Thing.

There's only one thing to do about The Latest Thing. Make sure that your Latest Thing is better than their Latest Thing. Because if you don't fill the Thing hole with your Latest Thing someone else will fill the need. And chances are that their Latest Thing is not as good a your Latest Thing.