They include this bit of cultural criticism:
>The social scene is littered with additional signs of the
>polarizing, dissonant, ugly and destructive themes of a bear market
>in social mood. The results range from an emerging interest in
>unions and a return of labor strife to escalating levels of office,
>shopping and road rage and a sudden lurch forward for separatist
>campaigns from Kashmir to the San Fernando Valley. In addition to
>its own falling stock prices (shown in the chart on page 6) and the
>omnipresence of long skirts in the latest catalogues, the fashion
>industry offers a number of confirming indicators. These include an
>end to casual dress codes and a "shocking blood-spattered dress" and
>"death hoods" at a recent fashion show. The burqa-look was part of a
>show in Spain where models sported "nooses, execution-style hoods
>and body covering bandages." Bear market momentum must still be
>building, because instead of embracing the gloomy style, the
>audience broke up the show with boos and whistles. Still, the
>impulse behind it is clearly bearish, as the basic instinct of
>fashion in a declining phase is to cover up. The urge to veil the
>face and head - a part of the human anatomy that has been on display
>for centuries - and the angry response to it probably speaks to the
>high degree of the trend change. So, don't count the "hooded look"
>out.
>
>The widespread allusion to death is important, too. Years ago, The
>Elliott Wave Theorist identified "deliberately ugly or 'dead'
>patterns and structures" as the expression of a negative mood in
>public art. As the current decline gathered steam, death literally
>became a medium. It emerged as a form of avant garde expression last
>year when a collection of "corpse art" was put on display in Berlin
>by an anatomy professor. A pioneering preservation technique called
>"plastination" was used to produce an odorless, extraordinarily
>preserved corpse. "At least one person a day faints at the
>exhibition," reports its proud proprietor. This year, the collection
>moved to London, where it has become a popular tourist attraction.
>HBO's "mordant hit series" is Six Feet Under, a drama about a
>dysfunctional family of undertakers. "They do amazing things with
>dead bodies on Six Feet Under," says Newsweek. It praises the show
>as "one of the smartest, funniest and deepest shows on television."
>Every episode begins with someone dying. The New York Post reported
>September 18 that another "violently disturbing sculpture popped up
>last week in the middle of [Rockefeller] Center's busy underground
>concourse - right in front of the ice-skating rink. It depicts a
>naked woman, limbs flailing, face contorted, at the exact moment her
>head smacks pavement following her leap from the flaming World Trade
>Center." The sentiment surrounding its appearance is unlikely to
>mark a bottom, though, because once word of the Tumbling Woman hit
>the newspapers, public outrage led to its removal. Poor taste is a
>hallmark of a bear market. Tastes today are poor enough to inspire
>but not yet support such a display. By the end of the decline, works
>that are at least as ugly as the junk that got banished in the first
>half of the 1980s will occupy public spaces across the country.
>
>At the outset of the long topping process, At the Crest of the Tidal
>Wave said the downturn would lead to the creation of a whole new
>bear market social order. These cultural seedlings will eventually
>become the "dramatic upheaval" called for in the final chapter of At
>the Crest. So far, the effects have only impacted a small percentage
>of the population. Eventually, the forces will reshape the lives of
>just about everyone. When all is lost and things can only get worse,
>the bottom will be in place. The first signs of the clearing skies
>won't be perceptible until the market is rising again in a third
>wave.