7 decades and not much has changed

The other night I was flipping though my 57 channels, and nothing was on, as The Boss said. In truth it was more like 398 channels, and there was something on. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", Frank Capra's 1939 picture about a naive man who is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. It's truly a wonderful movie, as most of Capra's are. So interesting in fact that despite the late hour that I found it, I stayed up until the following morning to finish watching it.

What was most interesting, cinematic technique aside, was the Washington D.C. power game as it was in the 1930's. The sad part is that I'm not sure things have changed all that much in the past 70 years. Powerful men still continue to tell our politicians what to do. Politicians remain more concerned with keeping their jobs than with doing their jobs.

I supposed I can't fault politicians for that last one. Many in the corporate world are currently consumed with keeping their jobs. Just the other day my boss told me that it was more important than ever that our team be perceived as adding value to the company. And here I thought it was more important that we actually add value. Typically I operate under the presumption that I'm adding value, and as long as my boss sees it that way all is good. Apparently these tough economic times have changed that. We now need to have others think we add value, even if we aren't.

I've heard that there is to be a new version of the movie "Wall Street", released near the 25th anniversary of the original. Timely in a way, no? The original was released shortly after a market stumble and before the 1991 economic fall out. With any luck the new one won't be followed by an economic fall out.

I guess the saying is true, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."