2013-06-22

Socionomics Alert: Brazil on Fire! And Angry Legos!

Listen folks, if you don't believe socionomics has merit, then explain how the world's #1 football nation, the country with more World Cup victories than any other, the nation that is undoubtedly the favorite to win as host of the 2014 World Cup, is in the streets protesting spending on the World Cup!

The World Cup riots: One million Brazilians protest at government spending £18billion on tournament
More than a million Brazilians took to the streets of at least 80 Brazilian towns and cities in demonstrations that saw violent clashes and renewed calls for an end to government corruption and demands for better public services.

Riot police battled protesters in at least five cities, with some of the most intense clashes in Rio de Janeiro, where an estimated 300,000 demonstrators swarmed into the city's central area.

Television images showed police firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into crowds of young men, their faces wrapped in T-shirts. Other demonstrators were shown detained lying on pavements.
It's very simple: Brazilians aren't angry about spending on the World Cup. The people are in a negative mood and they are lashing out at the largest, most obvious target, which isn't really the spending on the World Cup (and Olympics), but the corruption surrounding it.

If social mood was positive, we would instead be treated to stories of the great infrastructure projects being built in Brazil, how this would benefit Brazil's economy, and how the World Cup and Olympics will serve to show the world the new Brazil. Instead, Brazil's president pledges to hold dialogue with protesters
"We cannot live with this violence that shames Brazil," she said in a nationally televised address. "All institutions and public security forces should prevent, within the limits of the law, every form of violence and vandalism."

Rousseff spoke even as new demonstrations broke out on Friday, including one that for several hours blocked most passengers from entering or leaving the country's busiest international airport, outside Sao Paulo.

The protests have come out of seemingly nowhere over the past week. More than 1 million people took to the streets on Thursday in the biggest demonstrations in Brazil in 20 years.

The nameless, leaderless movement - composed largely of students and the middle class - has pulled together a wide range of grievances including bad public transport and healthcare, corruption, and the billions of dollars that the government is spending to host next year's World Cup.
The protests didn't come out of nowhere, they came out of negative social mood. Here is a chart of iShares MSCI Brazil (EWZ), which takes into account declining stock prices and the depreciating real.

Leaving Brazil, we can can see another impact of negative social mood: angry Legos.
Researchers have discovered that the faces on LEGO Minifigures are becoming increasingly angry and less happy. Combined with a trend towards more combat-related LEGO themes, a team led by Christoph Bartneck at the University of Canterbury said "we cannot help but wonder how ... this impacts how children play."
If researchers are concerned, they ought to get to the root cause: social mood. Social mood likely affects how children develop, which is why there is the historical pattern of 4 generations reflected in the works of Strauss & Howe, and also in ancient Chinese sayings such as "wealth does not pass the third generation." It's not something to get worked up over, but it is an interesting look at where the effects of social mood can show up.

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