Hollywood has lost the plot...

...and substituted a conspiracy.

In a comment on Disparu's youtube channel, I made the mistake of comparing Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to a low-budget Xena, Warrior Princess that could have used a Lucy Lawless in the lead. Understandably, that really upset the Xena, Warrior Princess fans, and maybe Lucy Lawless as well. I should say I was impressed with the range Lawless displayed as an actor in Eurotrip. She's New Zealand raised but made a convincing Dutch Dominatrix.

I also said that if you ignore what The Rings of Power did to Tolkien (which might constitute felony murder were he still alive), it was not a horrible show.  This, too, was a controversial statement, with others claiming it was clearly horrendous and how could I possibly think otherwise? However, my reasoning here was quite simple: if it's horrible, and I watched every episode, what does that say about me? Rather than stare into that particular abyss, I decided it was a bad, expensive flop -- that if they were trying to make it horrible (a possibility), they hadn't quite succeeded.

Expensive flops are nothing new for Hollywood, but these days a creative mess isn't allowed to sink into the obscurity it deserves. Hollywood now sees itself as the declining Rome of the Entertainment World, offering treasures for protection to a barbarian horde outside its walls, only to anger and whet the appetites of others. It's entered the realm of politics which, these days, is not just "a house divided against itself," but an old mansion where it's every room, closet, and cubbyhole for itself (and don't leave out the servants' quarters). As a result, Hollywood doesn't know whether to fight, flee, or fortify.

Politics has always played a role but it wasn't of paramount importance at Paramount or universally agreed upon at Universal or really dizzy at Disney -- or, for that matter, the lead actor in acting. Left-leaning filmmakers could make a conservative-themed movie and a conservative executive might green-light a left-wing consciousness-raising effort. In the last decade, consciousness-raising has taken over (Hollywood, having found its religion, won't shut up about it).

Recently, I rewatched The Hunger Games and wondered if these days the people making it would have more sympathy for the Capital -- the ignorant folks in the districts just don't understand the problems the experts face just keeping things together! Meanwhile, Indigenous Activists complain about the portrayal of the indigenous inhabitants of an alien planet in the Avatar sequel. Using their criteria, every human should boycott that film. In fact, that's what I'm doing -- until it makes it to Tubi, at least.

My advice to Hollywood is to get on "The Right-Side of Story-Telling" and forget about history (which they find an easy task in the movies they make).

Rob-Boy

With great elan, I announce that my nominee for Robber Baron of the Year (The Rob-Boy award) is that media darling who so quickly turned dirt-bag: Elon! He will play himself in the movie. The tagline will be "Elon Musk is Elon Musk." Not satisfied with taking up space in Silicon Valley, he decided to take up space (at an accelerated pace) in Texas.

Some might claim the honor should go to Sam Banker-Man Freed (freed is what I suspect he will be when the Democrats see how damaging a trial could be -- or he could just be suicided). In any case, Sam Bankman Fried was just a fraud and there are plenty of those around.

Are the Silicon Valley fraudsters today's robber barons?

Let's face it, we're all skewed.

In tenth grade, I was a socialist and told my friends I was a socialist. My reasoning was simple: socialists are good people who want the best life for other people and I was just such a person and therefore a socialist.  Meanwhile, all those folks around me who were not socialists meant that much future missionary work remained.

Then one day, while in study hall staring out the window, I had a thought that was potentially detrimental to my socialist beliefs. The thought itself is less important than my reaction to it. I tried to swat it like it was some buzzing, stinging insect that should be quickly crushed. The reaction seemed almost instinctual. A bit surprised, I then had a couple of thoughts about that thought. First, given my strong belief that the entire world should be organized on the principles of Socialism, it might be a good idea to think the matter through. Second, having attended parochial school, I recognized the impulse toward my own thought suppression. Occasionally, I would question the divinity of Christ or the Virgin Birth and suppress these thoughts because there was that whole damnation thing to worry about. Of course, the divinity of Christ deals with questions beyond the material realm.  Socialism, however, is all about the material realm.

So I hopped on the train of thought that eventually undermined my faith in socialism. At the same time, I thought about my reluctance to get on board. I decided my self-identification as a Socialist had a lot to do with it.  This was sixty years ago and at the time my political identification was of only a few months duration so, who knows, with a few more months of self-inoculation against contrary thoughts I might have become Bernie Sanders.

Still, we can't question everything and, given that reality, accepting received wisdom is useful. At the same time, I've noticed over the years that most individuals who are hyper-critical of the status quo treat their ideas for sweeping, transformational change, as a matter of faith. National interest was often equated with imperialism and opposed. True American patriotism, in their telling, demands loyalty to an improved nation that we can build using a blueprint that no one quite has access to. Also, holding distinctly contradictory opinions -- being for hydropower one minute and against that damn dam the next -- is a side-effect. Interestingly, these same individuals were often quite conservative -- imperialist, even -- where their personal life was concerned.

If I asked an awkward question, the topic would suddenly change. During a conversation, I might point out that a failure to act in the national interest will only cause confusion among foreign nations, and make our own actions less predictable. Then I would say (after the topic was changed) that segregation was a government program aimed at social planning (in a "careful about what you wish for" sort of way). The nuclear power industry they now oppose was created by the federal government, using the expertise of government scientists and the output of government labs. Politicians promised energy so abundant that it would no longer need to be metered. Unmentioned was the highly toxic nuclear "waste" plutonium the reactors would produce -- handy for H-bomb building and powering aircraft carrier battle groups. The utility executives The China Syndrome portrayed as endangering the entire planet were basically doing what they were told. So, designing our green energy future using the same approach may produce a result different from the one envisioned. After all, a million windmills draining energy from the atmosphere could also change the climate.

The reluctance to question socially acquired beliefs may be a good thing on an individual basis since we have to take much on faith as a practical matter.  Lately, it's become a strong -- perhaps even dominant -- social force tangled up with politics and used in the allocation of vast sums of government resources. As a result, we shall choose our next future exercising less care than when we chose our last phone.

The unexamined Utopia is not worth pursuing.

Bjorn Lomborg Declares “False Alarm” on Climate Hysteria

Marvel wonders where the marvel went

Many fans of established franchises such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are bewildered by the radical change in direction taken by the new owners of these IPs.  They watch a favorite white male heterosexual character reemerge as a black female gay character and wonder: what is the point? It appears that one person's "retconning" is another person's wrecking.

When an aggressive civilization conquers another they will typically take over important cultural sites of the conquered people and put their own important symbols there. The Christians turned the pagan Pantheon in Rome into a Christian cathedral. The Hagia Sophia started as a Christian church in Constantinople and became a Grand Mosque in Istanbul.

These actions show the conquered who's in charge and help identify the remaining objectors for future cancelation. This is what happened when the imperial Romans placed a statue of the Emperor in the Second Temple in Jerusalem and "encouraged" the inhabitants to make offerings. The resulting fuss is best described by that old Latin saying, "They made a desert and called it peace."

So Super Hero fans might complain that those who have conquered Hollywood should create new characters embodying the cultural traits they wish to emerge triumphant and leave the formerly established icons alone (that would make good business sense!). However, that would miss the point. Conquest is not about making money, it is about taking control and rubbing "their" noses in it. The money and prestige come after. So perhaps our new cultural overlords will create a cultural desert and call it peace while forcing the doubters to agree. Or perhaps they will find their actions were premature and those whose noses are now out-of-joint are too formidable to contend with. Stay tuned.

MARVEL "Re-evaluating" After Disastrous Phase 4