Where have the long-time regulars gone?

I enjoy reading and learning from the past postings of those mentioned by Sdcampbell and others. He's right that there has been a decline in activity. It's a lot easier to enjoy a consumer-oriented recreational activity when things are going well. For the past few years, that hasn't been the case.

In the electronics and entertainment industries, the last few years have seen a shift in consumer interest from recorded music to the Internet, progressive consolidation of ownership of radio stations into the hands of a small number of companies offering reduced variety in broadcasting, and sales of mass-market HT gear in big-box stores marginalizing sales of two-channel audio equipment by more traditional retailers. The same years have also seen the growth of Internet file-swapping, ongoing declines in CD sales, consolidations among recording companies, shrinking opportunities for new artists, and reductions in recording companies' catalogs of classical and jazz recordings. Recording companies are busy trying to close the barn door after the horse is out, by implementing more and more intrusive copy protection schemes. At the same time, two-channel audio equipment manufacturers seem to be shifting their offerings toward the more expensive end of the market, reflecting the reality that wealthy consumers are getting tax cuts while middle class consumers are getting right-sized and outsourced out of their jobs.

This is just part of a broader picture. During the past few years, we've seen an unsuccessful attempt to impeach a US President, the bursting of the tech bubble, the onset of a recession, a US Presidential election with disputed results, loss of investor confidence in financial markets following the Enron and Wordcom financial scandals, growing unemployment, and a reliance on interest rate cuts and upper-income tax cuts for economic stimulus at a time when industrial capacity is underutilized and opportunities for profitable investment are limited.

We have also seen the collapse of Mideast peace talks and renewal of violent confrontations between the Palestinians and Israel, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and an inconclusive war which overthrew the Taliban but allowed key Al Qaeda leaders to escape. We are now watching a steady erosion of rights in the name of security, a drift toward war with Iraq in the face of opposition from many other countries, and a risk of war with North Korea.

I do not pretend to be a pundit, and nobody reads an audio web site looking for analysis of current events. It's enough to say that times are hard, people have a lot on their minds, and many who used to have disposable income beyond their immediate needs are no longer so comfortable. During times like this, it's probably natural for interest in a consumer-oriented recreational activity organized around luxury goods to decline. Whatever our viewpoints, on the audiophile hobby or current events, I think most of us are hoping that we will see a return to prosperity and security in the future, that things will get better, and that we can go back to thinking about things like audio equipment instead of worrying about jobs, terrorist attacks or war.

Judging from the number of posts on this thread, I think that Sdcampbell touched on something that a lot of people have noticed and been concerned about. It's up to those of us who are still interested to find a way to keep our activity going. I'd sure like to keep hearing from some of the long-time regulars who have knowledge based on years of incolvement to share with the rest of us. Please keep posting!

02pete, wonderful post. Balanced, insightful, and how could underlying currents to markets be seen as irrelevant to ours?

Yes, post modern nihlism (read: the aftermath of deconstructionism of matter and mind, thereafter concluding that neither has a ground, resulting in that mind turning further into its focus on the accumulation of matter-products, e.g. capitalism) has run headlong into the notion that "democracy" must be sustained by active citizenry; sustaining a balance between our self-interest and other-interest (empathic identification), but not slipping to a predatory degree that we see every "other" as their prey.

We presently have developed an assumption in western society that infinite greed is "good", and we even make such people our icons and golden calves, but that is a far cry from the mutually reinforced self interest leading to happiness (conceptualized at the time to denote meaning and pleasure)that Smith, Locke et al, our so-called founders, envisioned.

The balance between freedom ("democracy") and self-interest ("capitalism")is a delicate one, and when the minds that constitute "society" cycle into pleasure to avoid the fact that democracy is inherently participatory, then that lack of involvement results in a de-evolvement, namely, back to a feudal past where the King told you he would keep you safe if you let him have power over you (the so-called "Imperial Presidency").

Our species (yes, I'm going that far!), as a group (society) has gone through a progressive pattern of development: from kinship (nomadic clans), to tribe, to polis, to state, to nation-state, to... In each of these shifts the individual in the group, through a conformism to the assumptions of the group, changed his identification to the "other", each time expanding to include more minds that were not like his. This an evolutionary telos that all of our "things", I would submit, are not powerful enough to impede. That we cycle into a progressive attachment to our "things", well, can't be too good...

Hiend audio, although recreational (pleasure), is also, deeper, a search for the beauty in music (meaning). In a group of minds cycling in denial through accumulation of an attachmnet to things, and the assumed power and safety it provides, the experiences of freedom, beauty, meaning, empathy-to-other etc. become progressively marginalized.

Now, 02pete, don't you feel better that they now have someone else, a much better target, to accuse of "going to deep"!

Keep posting 02pete.

Perhaps the "moderators" have discouraged them?

Unsound, I understand your concerns; as you can see above, I'm hardly one to tolerate censorship. My experience has been that people who wanted to beat up on other people have been deterred by 1)the moderators, and 2) some people, like myself, not putting up with them and calling them on it, on a conceptual level.

On the "deep" thing, I think its important to realize that it does have a chilling effect on some people, especially the way I do it sometimes (as above, not like 02pete's). I try to keep this in mind and not "weigh" those others down too early in a thread, or wait until it seems that others of similar inclination have congregated, or the thread is losing its juice. Generally speaking, on content, as opposed to tone, I've found the moderators to be quite indulgent of me.

If you keep it to the ideas, even deep or momentary tangential ideas, then I think you are just fine; if you choose to use superior cognitive agility to talk someone else down coupled with derogatory language, then you get their attention. If you get personal, regardless of merit of thought, you are paid more focused attention until a pattern emerges on that behavior.

I'm pretty provacative - and I'm sure some have complained when they didn't get their way - so I don't think that's the trigger. Its basically decorum, respect and maturity, and, I would submit, those are qualities that any radical egalitarian would be proud of.

Right on Unsound!