The Hollywood Writer’s Strike: The Renaissance that Fizzled
January 1, 2008
This is part two of the Hollywood Writer’s Strike series. You can start from the beginning by clicking here. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
The Sixties was a Renaissance that fizzled in terms of achieving its aims and goals of a more egalitarian society, and it was the Second Renaissance. Only its greatest ideals survive through the songs of those great writers of song and literature, and most of those ideals and principles have been eroded and pooh-poohed by the establishment who started buying art & entertainment companies in the Seventies, when the establishment - the Elite, as they are now called, began buying up all the art & entertainment industry companies.
This wasn’t just a profit motivated thing either, though in the final analysis it really is, it can and should be perceived as a strategic move to lock down the voice of independence; Creative Artists. And when you are intending to create a fascist state as Naomi Wolf points out in her video The End of America, then censorship of artists is what happens.
The manufacturing of “approved artists” (e.g. Britney Spears, girl and boy bands, etc.) is what then lead to a lowering of quality in art & entertainment because art & entertainment no longer serve the public, nor truly arose from it in a natural and organic way driven by a passion for the art forms, but served those who wish to enslave the public and control the flow of ideas to them.
We do not listen to radio to hear commercials. We do not watch television to see commercials. It is because of what works of art & entertainment, songs, movies, sitcoms and others that we watch and listen to do for our lives that we tune in. Without works of art & entertainment being created and broadcast the entire marketing industry would collapse. Do you think that industry doesn’t know this?
The independence of artists is not just to be celebrated, it is to be protected, because it performs an important safeguard and check on the very fabric of free and truly democratic societies.
Manufacturing artists undermines the trust otherwise inherent (See Code Point 26 of the Creative Artist’s Code) and traditional in the history of the art & entertainment social and civilizing service.
The independence of artists from corporate control is also important, and this is why Allforart has been created; the arts serve humanity, not a select few.
An industry of art & entertainment owned and controlled by business, or government, is not an independent industry.
A new model is needed and has been designed to give the benefits of economies of scale, while maintaining the vital independence of creative individuals to best serve humanity and not just a bottom-line philosophy that results in a populace kept in a programmable uninformed, shocked and numbed stupor that permits tyrants, power-moguls and others to run roughshod over humanity and Mankind in a money-driven cult of greed.
The new model for art & entertainment is designed to preserve freedom, and enhance society. It has been more than 20 years in the making, and has been funded by a few individuals here and there around the world who cared enough to trust a Creative Artist who said, “Enough! End the decay!”
“Everything has to go through the networks and creators have fewer and fewer places to go in order to pitch their product.” — Marty Kaplan,
Smells like monopoly. Feels like monopoly. Smacks of oligarchy. Is killing democracy and when you kill democracy, the arts are the first to be oppressed. Remember that.
“Intellectuals resolve problems. Genius prevents them in the first place.” -Anonymous
I knew it was no longer safe to build Allforart and the Free Articulator in the USA, and history, unfortunately, has proven me right (and sometimes I just hate being proven right; seriously). The limitation of the channels and outlets that Marty Kaplan refers to, were real to me in 1996 after more than 2 years of researching
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[...] Read on to part two: The Renaissance that Fizzled. [...]
While emotionally I agree with you, there are a few economic factors to consider here:
1. Until recently, the equipment to realize the writer’s concept in time/space (cameras, lights, recording media) were VERY expensive. Somebody had to put up the money, and that’s where the moneymen came in.
Of course, what the moneymen in power now *don’t* realize is that they no longer have that power, A/V media capture and distribution having been made much more accessible via electronics. How this will play out is yet to be seen, but if the writers would maybe distribute their work ONLY under an appropriate Creative Commons license, rather than for hire, they would have a big advantage.
2. By virtue of their ability to fund/bribe/grant favors to the lawmakers, they have a distinct advantage. This is especially true since so much of it can happen out of the public eye, effectively anonymously.
I propose a Cell Phone Project (CPP) to capture still image and video of all people in positions of public trust. They should be date/time stamped, noted as to location, and saved to a decentralized repository on the ‘Net, to hold them accountable, so such underhanded, undemocratic, secretive arrangements are harder to make, or at least harder to deny.
3. Nobody ever gives up power willingly, especially when the person has been led to believe it’s a *right*.
How the Armani suit set will man the barricades has been seen. Again, they need to be brought to heel by mass effect, voting and creator-empowering licensing. See what’s available and use it.
Cell Phone Project: It isn’t fascism when WE do it!!