Shopping alone

Valley girls used to show-off their belly buttons, wear high-heel shoes and go shopping at the Galleria together. They still do. But less. Much less.

Recent studies show a sharp decline in Mall patronage while conversely, there aren’t enough ware-house real estate for the like of Amazons.

What’s going on? Can’t wait to watch Diane Swayer’s special. She took six months to travel the US, to find out what’s going on (in the tradition of senior news-person before her): who’s “bowling alone”, dining alone, and playing MS’ Solitaire.

It’s sad just now as I was watching a clip about neo-KKK’s crashing a Jewish book reading. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone is equal under the Law. Right!!! Tell that to the millions who had died before Hitler killed himself. People slant and spin, manufacture and twist their narratives all the time. What’s your tolerance for half-baked truth? What’s your shade of grey?

We live in a political, cultural and technological bubble. Yet we were told “not to rock the boat”. So no one wants to disturb the comforted and comfort the afflicted. During the Vietnam War, reports kept coming back to Washington, showing an up-tick in enemy casualty. Statistics lie. People (you and I lie). Ponzi and his disciples lie.

I am glad nature doesn’t. Comes Spring time, I get the allergy. Prompto. On schedule. More reliable than a Swiss watch. If MBA curriculums have slightly changed after 2008 (more courses on ethics), their fruits have yet to show. We still have CEO charged with pushing drugs, x-student still killed on-campus and IS still claims credits for tourist massacre.

One recommendation for recruiting managers: two candidates of equal HR values, pick the one who is more honest, predictable. You ask him or her what time he/she is at the gym everyday. You will know who lies better. That person should be sent home to “bowl alone”. Wish I had lied enough to stay with ABC-affiliate back then ( I did not take the job offer to be its ENG photographer since I had to take care of my mom in Washington D.C.).

Liars get so used to twisting the truth that someday, they lie alone i.e. lying to themselves (cosmetic surgery, rationalizing, selective amnesia etc…..). Then people of less tolerance for lying will dissolve and disappear from their circle of “truth”. Liars will eventually turn loners and will have to live with themselves, entertaining their versions of truth and re-write their new narratives.

None of us know ourselves deeply enough, so we learn to lie even to ourselves. Until one day, like the last sentence in “Night”, we look in the mirror, and a monster looks back at us. Like the store clerk at the Mall, cleaning his/her window and sees only his/her reflection. Where are the Valley Girls? Of course, they are shopping alone. When the co-locating rack-space need more real estate, Telecom companies converted hotels into telco hotels. Now the new trend soon will be converting Mall=wareshouse. And Diane Sawyer’s wrap-up would be: since the advent of the I-phones, shoppers no longer frequented malls such as this one. Instead, the screens have replaced social scenes and increasingly, our teenagers grow up in a manufactured and virtual environment. Shopping alone is not too different from buying milk from a vending machine. At least, in the latter case, they interact with the outside world. Now, people can be literally next to each other and live in a totally different world.

“Ocean apart, day after day…”. That lyrics will need to be changed to suit our new attention-starved culture.