Oh Yay! Another film about Anarchy, Chaos, and War!
Are they trying to tell us something?
Photo by Ana Itonishvili on Unsplash
I’m noticing a trend. Maybe it's just me, but there seem to be an awful lot of TV series and films depicting the end of days. It’s almost as if someone is trying to tell us something.
It’s often produced in the guise of a warning of what could come, but it sure does feel like it desires to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you ask me.
A significant percentage of the programming we are seeing, and that is being produced, is doom and gloom, murder, murder, murder, crimes against humanity, evil, and nefarious people out to take down humanity and the planet.
Like, don’t we know this already? This weekend, we’ll get yet another reminder that
humans have pretty much made a mess of things, and we’d all better get armed up, bulked up, store food, and prepare for the inevitable.
Twenty years ago, I made a film about how our thoughts create our reality, showing how our brains are wired and how what we perceive we experience. Twenty years ago, I was called Satan's mouthpiece for suggesting that the more negative and fearful thoughts we think, the more negative and scary our reality will be. Since then, mainstream science has agreed, even as our media and “leadership” has continued to paint a frightening picture of our state of existence. Depression, anxiety, and stress-related illness are on the rise, Suicide rates are at an all-time high, and our programming, even music, is hell-bent on reminding us that the world and its inhabitants are inches if not millimeters away from total annihilation.
I’m not suggesting that we only watch happy, pithy, heartwarming, rose-colored glasses movies. But come on, where are the films and stories of collaboration, communities working together to truly solve problems for the greater good. They are out there, yet are few and far between the zombie apocalypse, dystopian, us against them, husband murdering wife again and again and again. Comparatively, there are literally hundreds of hours of doom and gloom compared to insightful, inspiring, intelligent, and thought-provoking media for us to consume.
Netflix just purchased a new series with Meghan Markle cooking and Harry playing Polo! Woo Hoo! I have nothing against these two people, but do we really need more mundane TV to keep us focused on our table landscapes and place settings? It’s as if we can either watch the end of times or be lulled into a false sense of a reality we don’t get to exist in. I’m all for a good cooking show, but do we really need another one? It’s likely to get worse as the streamers are closing ranks, buying less independent content, and regurgitating old movies… by the way, how many series do we need of the epic bravery of those surviving WW2? I mean, they are inspiring, but it also feels like a bit of a primer for ideas on how one can survive the next worldwide conflict, which, according to the media, is premiering any day now.
The streamers tell us they are giving us what we want. Are they? Or are they giving us what they want? Are we destined to make our media our reality or is it possible to shift the tides?
I hope so.
Do you have a book lingering unfinished, stuck in your mind? Want to start writing but unsure of how to begin?
I offer a video course that contains proven tips and tools to assist you in writing a great book, whether it is a novel, memoir, non-fiction, blog, or essay writing; these tools will help you get started, make room for creativity, and turn writing into a transformative experience. Additionally, you’ll receive a booklet with process details and worksheets to help you get started. Click here to learn more!
I just watched the preview for Civil War and had that same impression. The strategy of tension.