So apparently Hollywood just had a great year in 2007. I remember less than two years ago there was this hue-and-cry about how the Internet, file-swapping, Video games, TV, TiVo and everything they could possibly think of (someone even mentioned, gasp, books) that was destroying Hollywood movie industry. No one would watch films in theaters anymore. Articles were written in the papers (yes, those things that no one reads anymore, or so we say now) about how the industry is doing and how there was no hope. They had been left behind. There was no tomorrow (though Bond seemed to disagree) and it was all over.

So what explains the great 2007? The same thing that explains most of the economic and business discussion these days. It is all fickle and reactionary. Things are not things anymore -- they are precursors to chains of things. They are not complete within themselves -- they foretell stories. They predict doom. They tell us that an event is a trend or at least it predicts a trend.

To me it defies all logic but then emotions aren't about logic and unfortunately most of our public discussion has been taken over by emotion from reason. Hence the rise of the blog culture, the talk show culture, the youth culture and other such cultures that think from various organs all below the neck.