Great article! I wasn't aware of it because I've never watched the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (alright, I've seen snippets because my mother often tried to watch it, but it never caught my attention), but I'm glad you mentioned that detail about the women involved basically ruining the plot. Women in the industry are a major problem.
I wonder where the minorities who want to be represented on the screen are, because my parents are Mexican and have made sure to preserve our culture pretty well at home, yet I NEVER get excited when I see a film produced in the US with a Hispanic lead, especially in modern day. Family movie channels recently started making films with Hispanic leads, and my response to seeing the announcements or commercials is usually a groan. If it's an American movie, I want American leads. I can watch Hispanics in Hispanic content, thank you very much.
Thank you kindly. It's pretty illuminating to examine the particular changes Jackson and company made to Tolkien. Tells you a lot about what can fly in a major production, even one that isn't so openly antagonistic toward its audience. I recently revisited a thread from a few years ago about how even Gladiator had some compromising messages. This is why I think the medium is not our friend.
"The medium is the message" - Marshall McLuhan was right to point out that passive, visual communication is essentially not conducive to the abstract thought of archetypal communication. Now, it does seem to evoke the emotions associated with watching archetypes in action (e.g. sympathizing with the hero helping the damsel in distress). But again, that is merely the reception of emotional connotations - something the modern world is already too much attuned to. Emotions are not the habits of the will that embody archetypal virtue.
(Some might object that the written word is essentially the same, being a visual communication that can powerfully elicit the emotions. In reply, it should be observed that reading is intrinsically active, not passive. Information must pass first through the filters of the intellect, before affecting the lower powers. Movies and other similar media work just the opposite - from the senses and then (if the viewer is even industrious enough) in a shadowy form into the higher abstractions of the mind.
An example? Compare watching a foreign movie to reading a book - both in a language you do not understand. (If flashy enough, many might be able to tolerate the movie - especially if the soundtrack it engaging. A book...???...)
I watch fewer movies and television shows and devote more time to reading books (actual books and not kindle) to spend less screen time. I do not think the manager class nor C suite much cares about shareholder value as my understanding is most of the DEI driven movies and shows have been failures.
Excellent article! From my own personal experience watching the failure of the apparatchik managerial class in real time, I’ll say the West has about five to eight years (in case nothing radical occurs) before your globo-soy apparatchiks go the way of the dodo. Astroturfed systems, no matter how well and vigorously each bureaucratic parasite is carrying water for their fellow tick, eventually rot from inside out.
Thank you kindly. How do you foresee this playing out over the next 5-8 years? My claim is that the decline of the managerial system would have to be accompanied by a decline of mass society. Do you see that happening?
It is going to happen, just like it occurred in the Soviet Union. Telltale signs are all over the cultural and economical scape. Soviet society broadly collapsed and the same happened in all former communist countries.
Wonderful. Reminded me of a recent Robin Hood movie?/series? I turned off not far into it: noble Anglo-Saxon pagans defending themselves from those wicked Norman Catholic conquerors. Except, of course, England had been Catholic for quite some time already…
We need to find Catholics who want to make great art in the cinema, crowdsource them, and let them work independently. The major studies don’t get it and they don’t like us.
I would like to believe this is possible but have my doubts. Have you seen the trailer for Angel Studios' Animal Farm? They were supposed to be the based conservative Christian (though Protestant) rebels, but it looks like they've already gone pretty normie.
I appreciate seeing so much of this put out in type. These same thoughts and critiques have been swirling in my mind for years.
You’re right to assume it’s unrealistic for people to toss their screens out en masse, but being educated to see the machinations of the overlords is an effective tonic.
There’s a lot more I’d like to see you unpack from this post in a follow up allowing more breadth for these ideas to properly marinate. Thanks for sharing with us.
The opposite could be true. Artists with the talent of, say, Christoper Nolan, but without access to Hollywood resources, could make beautiful films using AI. Films that promote valor, honor, and the strength of virtue.
Great article! I wasn't aware of it because I've never watched the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (alright, I've seen snippets because my mother often tried to watch it, but it never caught my attention), but I'm glad you mentioned that detail about the women involved basically ruining the plot. Women in the industry are a major problem.
I wonder where the minorities who want to be represented on the screen are, because my parents are Mexican and have made sure to preserve our culture pretty well at home, yet I NEVER get excited when I see a film produced in the US with a Hispanic lead, especially in modern day. Family movie channels recently started making films with Hispanic leads, and my response to seeing the announcements or commercials is usually a groan. If it's an American movie, I want American leads. I can watch Hispanics in Hispanic content, thank you very much.
Thank you kindly. It's pretty illuminating to examine the particular changes Jackson and company made to Tolkien. Tells you a lot about what can fly in a major production, even one that isn't so openly antagonistic toward its audience. I recently revisited a thread from a few years ago about how even Gladiator had some compromising messages. This is why I think the medium is not our friend.
"The medium is the message" - Marshall McLuhan was right to point out that passive, visual communication is essentially not conducive to the abstract thought of archetypal communication. Now, it does seem to evoke the emotions associated with watching archetypes in action (e.g. sympathizing with the hero helping the damsel in distress). But again, that is merely the reception of emotional connotations - something the modern world is already too much attuned to. Emotions are not the habits of the will that embody archetypal virtue.
(Some might object that the written word is essentially the same, being a visual communication that can powerfully elicit the emotions. In reply, it should be observed that reading is intrinsically active, not passive. Information must pass first through the filters of the intellect, before affecting the lower powers. Movies and other similar media work just the opposite - from the senses and then (if the viewer is even industrious enough) in a shadowy form into the higher abstractions of the mind.
An example? Compare watching a foreign movie to reading a book - both in a language you do not understand. (If flashy enough, many might be able to tolerate the movie - especially if the soundtrack it engaging. A book...???...)
I watch fewer movies and television shows and devote more time to reading books (actual books and not kindle) to spend less screen time. I do not think the manager class nor C suite much cares about shareholder value as my understanding is most of the DEI driven movies and shows have been failures.
It's hard to think of woke productions that weren't money-burners, and yet very few executives lost their jobs. Really makes one wonder...
We should all follow your example of disengaging from the screen.
Excellent article! From my own personal experience watching the failure of the apparatchik managerial class in real time, I’ll say the West has about five to eight years (in case nothing radical occurs) before your globo-soy apparatchiks go the way of the dodo. Astroturfed systems, no matter how well and vigorously each bureaucratic parasite is carrying water for their fellow tick, eventually rot from inside out.
Thank you kindly. How do you foresee this playing out over the next 5-8 years? My claim is that the decline of the managerial system would have to be accompanied by a decline of mass society. Do you see that happening?
It is going to happen, just like it occurred in the Soviet Union. Telltale signs are all over the cultural and economical scape. Soviet society broadly collapsed and the same happened in all former communist countries.
Yet another banger
Thank you kindly!
Wonderful. Reminded me of a recent Robin Hood movie?/series? I turned off not far into it: noble Anglo-Saxon pagans defending themselves from those wicked Norman Catholic conquerors. Except, of course, England had been Catholic for quite some time already…
We need to find Catholics who want to make great art in the cinema, crowdsource them, and let them work independently. The major studies don’t get it and they don’t like us.
I would like to believe this is possible but have my doubts. Have you seen the trailer for Angel Studios' Animal Farm? They were supposed to be the based conservative Christian (though Protestant) rebels, but it looks like they've already gone pretty normie.
Hmm. Not so surprising to me. We need to create our own studios with our producers, directors — and financiers.
Zero benefit to keeping a television in the home, many negatives.
Maybe some kind of big outage event will solve this problem for us (while creating some new problems in the process).
I appreciate seeing so much of this put out in type. These same thoughts and critiques have been swirling in my mind for years.
You’re right to assume it’s unrealistic for people to toss their screens out en masse, but being educated to see the machinations of the overlords is an effective tonic.
There’s a lot more I’d like to see you unpack from this post in a follow up allowing more breadth for these ideas to properly marinate. Thanks for sharing with us.
Very true. AI as hyper-managerialism.
The opposite could be true. Artists with the talent of, say, Christoper Nolan, but without access to Hollywood resources, could make beautiful films using AI. Films that promote valor, honor, and the strength of virtue.