I haven’t gone out of my way to read up on what’s going on with Hollywood, but I’m running into a bunch of articles about it almost completely shutting down due to both actors and writers striking. That’s two strikes in one industry.
Apparently because of streaming service contracts, stingy studios and the threat of AI, both writers and the majority of actors get paid way less than we imagine them getting paid (the big names do fine, but are worried about AI replacing them).
Aside from a show every year or two (Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot, Westworld), I hardly watch anything produced by the industry, maybe a film or two a year?
I’m guilty of having gone on a Marvel and Star Wars binge for a few weeks last year because these are stories and worlds I enjoyed as a kid, but quickly felt I was wasting my time and haven’t kept up with either franchise, knowing full well how these films are exploiting popular narratives in order to continue capturing a large audience.
Most of my knowledge about Hollywood is all based around my curiosity about culture and what direction it’s heading in, so sometimes I just familiarize myself with different aspects of culture and get a feel for what motivates the big players in it. So I may watch an interview by a celebrity from time to time, especially the most controversial and most loved celebrities.
I want to be able to imagine better what might be going on behind the scenes.
I will do my best to separate this conversation from any popular conspiracy theory around Hollywood or “the elites”. My personal stance is agnostic here. I do not look down on people who theorize about these kinds of things, I do it too, but I think a lot of what’s out there is intentional exaggeration by people looking to become relevant in there “exposing secrets” and possibly also exaggerated by people looking to protect the industry by mixing fact and fiction to create deniability “Look at how crazy these accusations are”.
I’d like to just focus on the things we know…
How would society change if Hollywood collapsed?
The impact that Hollywood has on society is undeniable. It’s one of the most influential industries in the world because it’s at the center of culture and how we see the world. It has provided us with a set of stories that we could share.
Even those who hate Hollywood will reference “red pills” and “blue pills”, “the Force” or other concepts and symbols that were introduced to them by films created by Hollywood. Whether I like most of the films or not, they have created a frame of reference for the whole world.
Thanks to Hollywood, the whole world understands American culture. While you can argue that this creates a kind of cultural imperialism (I might!), it’s also made it much easier to relate to each other. When I came to Asia, having those kinds of shared stories to reference made it easier to explain what life was like where I came from, and it created a starting point for conversation for people who otherwise might see me as a threat.
“Bam bam! Bruce Willis! Die Hard!” I remember someone saying that to me in a bar when I said I was from America, and I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world at the time…but it’s a huge step up from seeing people from another place as less than human or dangerous. It’s not like Hollywood is the only thing that’s helped with this, but it sure helped, back when travel was more difficult and we didn’t have the internet to learn about each other directly.
A century old grudge between Japan Korea and China has been partially defused thanks to K-pop and Anime. This is the power of shared stories.
Hollywood falling means the end of these shared stories originating from a centralized source. For three or four lifetimes, America, and more specifically, certain industries in America had a near monopoly on international culture. Countries obviously all have their own local media, but they also tend to have an equal amount of media that comes from overseas (namely America and UK).
Social media, YouTube and streaming services like Netflix putting money into other countries film industry, and the success of various media from Japan, Korea, and India has started a loosening the grips of Hollywood, who once held a monopoly on any culture that wasn't home grown.
If Hollywood falls, it will leave a massive amount of empty attention that other industries are going to try and feast upon, but it also creates an opportunity for other parts of the world to step up.
I suspect that one result of Hollywood falling would be an increase of films from other countries getting more international recognition. That will only further the cross pollination that has been going on for decades, but this time, it will be two ways, rather than just from the US and UK outward.
It also marks a significant landmark on the decline of America as the most culturally significant country in the world, and a huge move towards decentralization.
A lot of that attention going to Hollywood and celebrity culture will start going towards other parts of the world, but also to indie creators, whether that be independent films, blogs, podcasts, streaming, or other forms of independent media.
The culture of the world is already beginning to decentralize but the fall of Hollywood will mark the beginning of the age of decentralization. As it happens monetized content creation and blockchain are on the rise, which is moving us toward a really exciting new dynamic.
What if a Netflix existed that was less about pumping a huge budget into things, and more for helping to monetize smaller projects in a way that made them more sustainable. What if blockchain opened up new ways to fund small budget movie production and also gave the audience a way to pay the production team and actors directly? Those kind of platforms are inevitable.
The stories we share will no longer be dictated to us from the top, they will be much closer to home, literally or more often figuratively. Thanks to Youtube and social media (despite all their problems), we are already able to build a name for ourselves and monetize our art without being tied down to a studio or a publisher or the like. We are confined by the rules and whims of the platform but we are also allowed to share our work anywhere that we want.
This trend towards empowering independent artists and creators around the world is about to get super charged.
Meanwhile we will be able to create and consume stories that more closely align with our values and the way we see the world, and build communities around those values. These communities will eventually become new organizations that re-shape the world.
The stories will no longer be forced down our throat, and society will begin to wake up from it's long hypnosis. That doesn't mean the old stories will disappear, and it doesn't mean everyone is suddenly going to start agreeing on things, but it means we will be able to shape the world around us more than we ever could before and vote for the things we love with our attention and have these votes matter much more than they ever have.
Right now it feels as if there is greater and greater tension between different cultures that exist in the same spaces, but that is merely a result of the old guard struggling to maintain a grip on their control over the narrative.
It manifests in a polarization between different ideologies, but as new opportunities arise and more people realize that they are more empowered than they have ever been to shape the narrative, more attention will go into creating new things rather than throwing fuel on these old fires that we have been trained to fuel.
Right now the conversation is about whether or not climate change exists or whether or not it's right to eat animals, but new narratives will emerge that prioritize saving our oceans from pollution and overfishing over the nuanced debates that divide us. "Who cares if global warming is real or not, we want cleaner oceans and fish in them". This is a much less polarizing version of the same discussion.
These conversations are easier to have when the talking points aren't handed down from the top and when more of us play a more participatory role in the narrative.
The decentralization of narratives will have IMMENSE impact on government, education, health and how we organize ourselves. That may sound scary to some people, but remember, we don't need anything other than the ability and resources to fork.
Perhaps that should be an amendment to the vision we have four our nations, "The ability to fork".
The narratives of fear are strong right now, but try to see beyond them into all the possibilities, some of which you have the power to encourage with your own work or your own support.
I see a lot more incredible, world-changing art coming out of local areas around the world that will spread like wildfire. Africa will play a much larger role in international culture, as will Asia, and more and more variety will emerge in these places, as the tools to sustain oneself and one's community on our own terms increase.
Expect more collaborations between borders in the form of DAOs and self-funded projects, expect new social movements to emerge that are less divisive than the current ones (such as those maintained by the two major political parties in America, and HOLLYWOOD).
Expect more of a blurring of the lines between different philosophies, and more ideas that exists outside of them. Expect a reemergence of old traditions, and a reimagination of our cultural values, where we take the things that serve us and throw away the things that don't.
Expect more cultural understanding between people from different faiths....yes, some will still argue and remain closed minded, but endless channels will open up that encourage understanding...the dams that have held us back are breaking.
Perhaps those dams needed to exist at some point and in some form, but we are ready to evolve into something better, and I think the fall of Hollywood is a very clear symbol that our time has arrived.
I urge you to be patient with the narratives you disagree with. Try to engage as individuals and focus on the things you can agree on, or learn from each other. Over time it will become more apparent that much of our ideas about each other came from misunderstandings, stereotypes and exaggerating the threat of some of the worst examples of "the other side" which misrepresent the vast majority.
The immediate effects of Hollywood's collapse will undoubtedly be a bit scary....stocks crashing, a further degradation of sanitation and homelessness in California, perhaps some minor forms of mass hysteria around "the culture wars" on either or both sides, tech companies and international organizations trying even harder to hijack the situation for their own benefit.
All of these are temporary, and the more we step outside of these old narratives, the less relevant they become. Let's focus on the things we can create and the things we can be a part of, the things that make us excited.
Onward to the age of decentralization!
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