Hollywood in Decline and in Denial

There are apparently a number of Hollywood Trade articles about the decline of the movie industry. Comparisons to Detroit seem to be everywhere. And there is a reason for that.

Below is Disparu's video How Hollywood Decided It Deserved To Die

But the most interesting part of the question isn't if they're failing, it's what caused them to fail, and how are they trying to fix it?

There is a lot of denial in Hollywood. Their failure isn't due to anything they are doing wrong. They believe they are not doing anything wrong.

There is also denial about where regulations come from.

It's like, oh, we're just a victim of California's tangle of regulations. as if they spring up out of the ether, that regulations are just a fact of life that have to exist rather than a consequence of the actions which California have taken themselves.

They can't see that regulations are a direct result of the people and the party they vote for.

One part that really interested me, is his discussion on the morality of actors. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson didn't want to discuss politics. He was immediately attacked and they tried to "shame him back onto the reservation."

This was part of a discussion of how, and why Hollywood has systematically fired all of the risk takers, and the psychology of the people who are left. (And why they want to shame The Rock back onto the reservation.)

They've killed off the risk takers, the new ideas, because to have new ideas, to be creative, you have to risk being offensive to the horde. You have to tell everyone else, "I don't care what you're doing. I know better." Because sometimes you will.

The video is almost 24 minutes, but I think it is worth your time. You don't need to watch all of it in one go.

I was interested in the 3 articles Disparu mentioned regarding theories of Moral Development, and why Hollywood is stuck in the "go along with the crowd" phase of development. I list them here, in case anyone else is interested.

• Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
• [Carol] Gilligan's Theory of Moral Development
• Understanding Political Differences Through Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt)