The Blockbuster Conspiracy…

The other day, I was having a conversation with a friend lamenting the fact that more and more Blockbuster stores were closing in favor of the smaller electronic kiosks found in and around various grocery stores. Sure, there could be more kiosks placed in more places, and with no employees to pay, Blockbuster could save a bundle in expenses. But it seemed that they were missing something. What was it? Oh yeah...the ability to rent movies that just might catch your eye while wandering around the store.

What I mean is that one of the joys of the Blockbuster (or similar video rental) stores was walking around and spotting movies that have never been heard of. Let me put it like this, my friends and I frequently enjoyed the opportunity to walk around Blockbuster perusing various movies, picking them up, reading the back, laughing at the ludicrous premise of the films, or finding ourselves fascinated by the concepts and intrigued enough to rent movies that we would not have otherwise seen. But now, with the stores closing, the odds of us finding those movies that sometimes surprised us has diminished significantly. The kiosks really only carry the latest movies to come out, so searching for the old classics has been relegated to online searches and hoping that the movies are available through the online services. Either that or spending money to buy movies that we may or may not actually want in our collection.

But what if there was more to it than that? What if there was a larger issue afoot? Not following? Okay, try and stay with me.

By limiting the number of movies that are available to rent in the kiosks, the movie rental industry and their parent companies are exercising control over what people at large get to watch. Gone is the creativity and curiosity associated with viewing older or little-known movies. Gone are the opportunities to effortlessly expand one's horizons. Gone is the intellectual curiosity sparked by the visual double-takes. Now, you have to know exactly what you're looking for, and if you don't know, well then you're just out of luck. But in limiting these avenues for exploration, the movie rental industry is also forcing the viewing audience to conform. And the more we conform, the less trouble we're likely to be. Why? Because we won't be watching the independent, revolutionary movies. We'll be watching the pandering and pedantic movies that cater to mindless entertainment while rejecting critical analysis. We'll be force-fed a diet of explosions, stereotypical and unrealistic romantic comedies, stilted dramas, and pseudo-horror slasher movies that emphasize gore instead of the psychological thrillers that used to scare the crap out of us. We'll be one step closer to being the mindless drones that don't ask questions but that go to work and do what they are told without asking why.

But hey, maybe I'm just rambling...maybe I'm totally off-base...maybe we're already stuck in the Matrix and it doesn't matter which pill we take, we'll never get unplugged.