With the advent of the Internet upon the human social scene, our world
seems poised upon the brink of a change that will revolutionize human culture in
a very old-fashion sort of way.
I refer to the art of storytelling, here. Human villages used to be
much more communal and centralized, each village centered around one or two
skilled storytellers who were also often considered "holy men" of sorts. The
art of telling a story once wove the fabric of small communities around the
globe.
With the dawn of the industrial age and the invention of major-release
movies, our stories slowly began to blend together - films with an east/west or
"our mythos/their mythos" theme became relatively common as citizens fo the
communal village began getting to truly know one another. A story emerged into
popularity and soon, it spread around the globe. Such popular fads served to
synchronize the world almost like the ticking of a metronome as individual
trends swept over the globe like waves of change.
Our cultures began blending, the entire world began to become one great
big melting pot.
Part of the reason for the emergence of a few more powerfully
influential stories over the infinitude of tales being produced has everything
to do with production quality. Production quality, in turn, has everything to
do with how much money you have to pour into creating a story with the potential
to impress. Crafting films with truly impressive effects and plot devices was
for so long solely in the realm of the wealthy. Their films were seen because
they could be produced with flair and style, all leading to very professional
results. The common man was left with nothing but the scraps of our culture's
appetite for entertainment, the main portion of it being gobbled up by those
with the money to pull it off.
Now, innovations in technology are enabling a much broader range of
people to produce stories with attractive, appealing effects once reserved for
the rich. As this trend continues, an increasing volume of movies are in fact
being produced.
So this is my theory: We're getting too many entertainment options.
The ability of large studios to produce effects the common man cannot afford is
slowly shrinking because the common man's tools are catching up. As this trend
continues, there's got to come the day where there are simply too many options
for enough people to pay attention to in the manner needed to make it a
world-wide smash. If such happens to be the case, then the only stories most
people are going to want to pay attention to are those of people they're
familiar with - an increasing number of which _are_, in fact, "the common man".
The net result would be a world where culture becomes more distinct to
the local region, with -some- currents of "pop culture" still flowing among the
various groups, but not with nearly as much significance as it's held for the
past few centuries. We will at last have returned - at least in a small,
symbolic sense - to telling stories around the campfire. And what better
campfire to tell a story around than one that can produce images and talk to
you? After all, what else is a projected image besides a flat, cool "flame"
we've learned how to control?
Just some thoughts.
--
L8r,
Uncle Clover
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The true mark of a civilized society is that its
citizens know how to hate each other peacefully.
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