Networking
What I miss about cable TV is a one-stop shopping of what to watch on TV. There would be a guide available as well (online) that you could peruse to catch anything interesting that might catch your eye. No cable for me now as in its own way it's restrictive and expensive. So, I stream, you stream; we all stream the TV stream.
One of my favorite channels is TCM. It's got some classics on there. Says so right in the name. But until I found a guide for it (exactly two minutes ago), I had to scroll to the middle of the YouTube TV listings to see if something great was on. That's a first world hassle. Last night I found "Network", the 1976 Sidney Lumet gem that starred William Holden and Faye Dunaway. Forty-nine years later, this is a story ripped from today's headlines! Well, sorta. It's an indictment of television then and now. That says either everything old is new again, or the more things change, the more they stay the same.
No real spoiler alerts here because, if you haven't seen it- you should- and if you have, you probably know what I'm talking about. It was just so over-the-top good!
The recent capitulations by CBS and ABC to the Trump regime were almost predictable. The networks were used to capitulating to themselves back then, it seems. But there was also a storyline about Saudi billions at stake with the network, and that rolled into Ned Beatty's character giving a great speech about the corporatization not only controlling the US, but the world. This shit has been going on a while...
Whether you are an individual multi-billionaire (which I'm not sure had been invented yet in 1976) or a billionaire corporation like Exxon, GE, AT&T et. al., there comes a point where you think you should be running everything. It's human nature. Maybe inhuman nature. The problem there is that others in your same fancy shoes have the same idea. It then becomes a "fuck or fight" situation. There might have been a little fighting in the last 50 years- mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeovers and general skullduggery- but I think they finally decided that fucking was better. At least for now.
Whereas Ned Beatty's vision of corporate world control solved problems like hunger, housing and health in a benevolent way, these current corporations don't seem to have any noble intentions. It seems they would prefer to downsize us, because that's what corporations do. It's what the people behind Trump are doing right now.
Historically, when old school communists invade a country, the first thing they do is murder the intellectuals, the teachers and local government representatives, because these are the people who will alert you to what they are doing. This is not to say that the corporations are communist, but maybe they are in their own way? The Trump regime is currently downsizing government and shaking down leading universities and TV networks, while heavily hinting at arresting and trying democratic leaders like Obama, Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsome, amongst others. Not a shooting spree yet, but can't you just see it from here?
"Network" noted that democracy was failing/dying then, and it's still flailing now. There's nothing wrong with democracy. The problem lies in how you do it. Democratic Socialism works very well in places like Europe but is under constant assault here because it has that easily misinterpreted word, "socialism" in it. Republicans fucking hate that word because they have decided it means "communism". It does not. Republicans are stupid on purpose, and they want you to be stupid as well. Their success depends on your stupidity. Republicans are the reason that we the people can't have nice things.
We'll see how this all fleshes out, but I promise you that the billionaires and corporations are in this to win it. Pretending to be fiscally conservative isn't working for them anymore. They no longer are pretending. You don't create an ICE army with an unlimited budget and use it to kidnap and incarcerate busboys for any other reason than ethnic cleansing. I thought they never cared about people before, but it turns out people are their business after all.
I'm not sure how shooting the customer helps them out. Their greed will destroy them. (I hope) I was going to mention cable to someone but stopped because I wasn't even sure if it was still a thing. My mom had it and I loved to watch the old movies.
ReplyDeleteYeah, cable is a thing still, just not the player it was for years.
DeleteIDK how they are going to make money at this, but maybe that's where crypto comes in? Literally manufacturing money for themselves? They WILL fuck it up as it's a dumb idea. It's above my paygrade to figure it out for them. Just abject greed and it will destroy them Us too, of course.