Sometimes I struggle against feelings of sadness and loss when contemplating the degeneration of Tinseltown. Other times I just accept it and think "they had it coming".
When swindlers start taking over a once great enterprise such as the Hollywood film industry, it's a bit like watching someone die of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or Alzheimer's. Yet whereas for decades we've been lead to believe these killer diseases are sort of somewhat like unfortunate 'infections', nowadays medical research has begun revealing more and more uncomfortable truths about the actual causes of these dreadful pandemic diseases. And doctors, nutritionists and other health care providers very soon will be facing the difficult predicament of what to say about blame. How much longer will they be able to continue with their professional diplomacy and avoidance of laying blame on the great and powerful money-making institutions of today? Will they dare to take a stand against Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Agriculture, and above all, Government-backed advice on healthy nutrition? It's going to be very interesting to see when and how that will eventually pan out.
These days, I'm somewhat sanguine about the fact that so many successful swindlers have so much public support. The so-called "engineering of consent" has been an enormously powerful factor in forming sociocultural attitudes towards successful money-making. But this "social engineering" didn't appear out the blue just because of propaganda experts (oops, sorry, they like their profession to be called "Public Relations") such as Sigmund Fraud's nephew, Edward Bernays back in the early 20th century. How about the Hans Christian Anderson (1837) story, "The Emperor's New Clothes"? In that story the two swindlers made the point up front that the Emperor's new clothes would be invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid - a classic narc tactic.
In the case at hand here, we have a pushy and self-promoting pop-song producer who relies on orchestrated 'jingles' and 'hooks', but who has cunningly convinced Tinseltown producers and directors that he's an excellent film composer. And he's made shedloads of money doing that - so now he's untouchable, right?
Though I do agree with you, William, I can only implore you that there are far better things on which to expend your energy. For my part, currently I'm avoiding trying to wake people up to the fact that their chronic consumption of ultra processed food is highly likely to shorten their lifespan and healthspan. I can't say it's the same as trying to get people to recognise that the Zimmbot is a swindler who is just dishing out the musical equivalent of ultra processed junk food. But it's kind of similar.
Unless and until there's a tectonic shift in the current "engineering of consent" we're just p***ing against the wind.
