Why don’t movie reviews take morality into account when they do reviews? Or at least base part of their reviews on whether the movie even has a message?
Why don’t TV and movie executives consider how moral the shows they are creating are? Why can’t they aim to also include the need for messages into their decision-making process?
I guess people could say that morality is subjective or that there are a million different messages that could be spread. Fine. But that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be included at ALL, does it? After all, what ends up happening is the clear bias we see in Hollywood, and especially on television towards either having no message at all or a morally relativistic message, both of which DO actually come from a belief system.
This makes no sense to me, that we run our media this way. That we pretend that it isn’t actually the myth-maker of our nation. That we hide from the fact that every country since the dawn of time used its stories to guide it towards the morality it believed in.
We’ve blinded ourselves into a false definition of art. One that is based only on “skill” and/or “profitability”. But people forget that the ultimate skill of art is to turn it into something that uplifts people, that directs them towards a certain truth. The artists we remember the most, like Bob Marley for example, were the ones that made that happen. Anyone else could only be considered a “celebrity”.
Causing people to feel moved or entertained or amused doesn’t require as much skill as being a myth-maker. A story-teller with a message. We’ve forgotten that, and it’s a shame.
But perhaps now, as we see social media proliferate, as technology starts to bring people what they want, whether executives or Hollywood celebrities like it or not, we will see the creation of real myths. Of stories with messages. Of true skill being brought to the fore.
Hollywood is breaking down. The people who had a chance to really create powerful messages through their medium are losing their grasp. There is an opportunity here for people to change the emptiness of our national myths. It could happen. It might happen. It can happen.
But it will require people with vision to make it happen.
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