Governance by Fad

Sometimes "fetch" never happens.

One of the most frustrating behaviors in society – and politics – is trend (aka fad) chasing.

Trends (more accurately described as fads) are objects or behaviors that achieve short-lived popularity but fade away, they are social moments that realize large short-term attention and then suffer unusually quick declines. Fueled by hype, they typically appear with a bang, quickly rocket up in the public attention for a very abbreviated period while practically everyone wants in – and then, poof, they are gone.

It happens in business as well as society.

A few years ago, Forbes noted, that for businesses:

“Trend chasing is a dangerous game. It can be ridiculously hard to master every emerging trend, and even if you do, your audience will likely be aware of what you’re doing. Struggle and desperation are not good looks for a brand, and ironically, nothing drives an audience away more than when a business is trying too hard to appeal to them.”

Remember the dot com era? Remember how lunatic money followed companies with the greatest cash “burn rate”? Remember how much good money chased bad when investors got FOMO (fear of missing out) and invested in companies or technologies they didn’t understand?

Think of how quickly kids and young adults adopt “trends” seen on social media.

Remember the “cinnamon powder” and “tide pod” challenges?

Those were trendy.

Those were also stupid and dangerous. Kids suffered harm and some even died.

Remember, “fetch” never happened, no matter how hard Gretchen Wieners tried.

Yeah, today’s politics are like that.

The irony of trends is that people who claim to be seeking to be different are simply seeking to belong to a group they see as being more edgy and exciting. Joining in a trend is the anthesis of individuality, because it just means you are part of yet another group.

And once the “trendy’ realize they are one of the pack, they go looking for another trend to try on.

When the bubble bursts, the value of participating in that trend disappears.

Several years ago, it was nose rings and Russian collusion, two or three years ago it was tattoo sleeves, this year it is transgenderism. Next year? Who knows?

If you ever wondered why it is so maddening trying to stay ahead of politicians or political parties that change positions the way most of us change underwear, this is it.

The problem with being “trendy” is that for most of us, by the time the trend has become big enough and popular to be identified, it has already peaked, and it is no longer a trend. Buying into a trend at the peak doesn’t make you trendy, it just means you are one of the pack.

And to stay “en trende”, one must pay attention only to what fads are emerging, nothing else.

Having no base principles other than to be perpetually trendy, the most vulnerable to trend chasing are the postmodernist progressives. Trend chasers tend to be drawn to any bright new shiny object because they value the pop of the risky “new” over the boring and steady but proven valuable “traditional”.

Just as strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government because supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony, governing by trend chasing is even a worse idea – perhaps THE worst.

There is a recognizable difference between movements that add value to society and those that are simply a momentary flash with no substance backing them up. People complain about how hard it is to change our Constitution – but think of what it would look like if it was easy.

Parachute pants and mullets might be mandated.

Hammer time.

As two great minstrels once crooned, “I can’t go for that. No can do.”