DiscoBiscuit
Meat Tornado
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
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The problem with hollywood.
Why has Hollywood dominated national mythmaking, and why is that a problem?
The mythmaking or the national idea space, whatever you want to call it is the space in which the nation collectively conceptualizes itself. Who am I? Who are we? What is our country? Why? These are the questions answered in this space.
Its where the dreams we have about ourselves happen. The contours and size of this space color the kind of concepts its capable of producing, kind of like an aquarium. If the aquarium is small I can have minnows, if the aquarium is big I can have Shamoo.
Books and newspapers controlled this space because those were the mediums where ideas could be transmitted over great distances, and in newspapers case where intellectual interaction could happen publicly.
Hollywood took over national mythmaking from books and newspapers in the early 1900's.
Which was fine insofar as it goes. Movies much more efficiently export ideas than books ever could. If a pictures worth a 1000 words what happens when you get 24 of em a second?
The problem was that being an author had a much lower barrier to entry than hollywood which was now the dominant mythmaking system. This higher barrier to entry, gave the reins of national mythmaking only to those in the entertainment industry, interested in moving to California.
Before this a farmer from Mule Shoe Texas could have an idea and write the next great American novel. Which could in turn fertilize the national idea space with its fresh perspective.
What happens when the only perspectives being portrayed are those from folks within a highly narrow industry who come from a completely homogenous political culture, and have no familiarity with or inclination to explore to concerns of people who don't already agree with them?
Now that I've set the table, here's where things get good. This homogeneity among those controlling national mythmaking was permanently shattered with the birth of the popular internet.
Once the internet became normie and everyone hopped on, the environment was right to develop a new mythmaking space. From there we get twitter, replacing the public square, news sites for news, youtube for video etc etc.
The barrier to entry into any of these spaces is so low as to now be non existant. With that, the people slowly began to wrest control of our national idea space from those who'd owned it since the days of william randolf hearst.
It's the fight for this space that is the true fight. For the only things that we can make happen are those things we are allowed to dream into existence.
Why has Hollywood dominated national mythmaking, and why is that a problem?
The mythmaking or the national idea space, whatever you want to call it is the space in which the nation collectively conceptualizes itself. Who am I? Who are we? What is our country? Why? These are the questions answered in this space.
Its where the dreams we have about ourselves happen. The contours and size of this space color the kind of concepts its capable of producing, kind of like an aquarium. If the aquarium is small I can have minnows, if the aquarium is big I can have Shamoo.
Books and newspapers controlled this space because those were the mediums where ideas could be transmitted over great distances, and in newspapers case where intellectual interaction could happen publicly.
Hollywood took over national mythmaking from books and newspapers in the early 1900's.
Which was fine insofar as it goes. Movies much more efficiently export ideas than books ever could. If a pictures worth a 1000 words what happens when you get 24 of em a second?
The problem was that being an author had a much lower barrier to entry than hollywood which was now the dominant mythmaking system. This higher barrier to entry, gave the reins of national mythmaking only to those in the entertainment industry, interested in moving to California.
Before this a farmer from Mule Shoe Texas could have an idea and write the next great American novel. Which could in turn fertilize the national idea space with its fresh perspective.
What happens when the only perspectives being portrayed are those from folks within a highly narrow industry who come from a completely homogenous political culture, and have no familiarity with or inclination to explore to concerns of people who don't already agree with them?
Now that I've set the table, here's where things get good. This homogeneity among those controlling national mythmaking was permanently shattered with the birth of the popular internet.
Once the internet became normie and everyone hopped on, the environment was right to develop a new mythmaking space. From there we get twitter, replacing the public square, news sites for news, youtube for video etc etc.
The barrier to entry into any of these spaces is so low as to now be non existant. With that, the people slowly began to wrest control of our national idea space from those who'd owned it since the days of william randolf hearst.
It's the fight for this space that is the true fight. For the only things that we can make happen are those things we are allowed to dream into existence.
