Ever thought to yourself, they stole my idea? You are not alone. But no idea is entirely unique, either. By the time you thought of it there have been dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others that have thought the same idea–no really, there has!
It’s almost as if there is some collective neural dashboard where we all pull our thoughts, emotions and feelings from. But at the same time we are ignorant of the other people that are sharing those same ideas.
Great, so I’m a poser, what other compliments do you have for me today? Well, we are creatures of habit. We like the same hero story. We fall for the same ideology of a perfect romance, a happily ever after.
Guess what? Hollywood knows this. They know that you’ll pay to see the same movie three times. They also know that you will pay to watch a flick that has relatively the same premise but is based in a different world or has a different lead. Whatever keeps the money wheel turning.
You see, Hollywood, is not in it to advance or progress society. They are in it for the money, as are most other capitalistic organizations. Their main driver is the cash flow, so they will do whatever it takes to guarantee that your butt is in that seat for opening night. And that’s only the beginning of the problem.
Since all the money is circling around the proven, the formulaic, the retold hero story; the concepts, books and movies that are cutting edge or revolutionary might get a small crack at the limelight at the Cannes festival or the Sundance Festival. But they aren’t cash cows and so very few pay attention, because let’s face it, all that glitters is gold, especially these days.
How much creativity is lost as a result? Probably more than we can ever imagine. So much untapped potential to progress not just the movie medium, or the various genres of stories we tell, but society as a whole.
When we narrow our scope of vision two things happen.
- We can focus on but one thing and nothing else matters. And so money or the yearning for it is what consumes us.
- We close everything else out. Little chance to define a new genre, to have a newcomer burst onto the scene, to have some huge leap in technology.
And so, we’ve–in many ways–lost our way. What once was a journey to progress as a human race for the procurement of our species and our kind has been lost to what will pay the bills, or what will add to the coffers.
Will it take a drop like in the movie Inception to snatch us from our dream state and wake us up to the new world where many of us are struggling just to survive?
Here’s hoping…