The Decline of Culture

In 2019, legendary director Martin Scorsese made the news for saying that Marvel movies weren’t cinema. The backlash was louder than the statement, perhaps because the Marvel movie franchise is so hugely successful and beloved, but perhaps the fact that I called it a franchise should give us some sort of a hint. Quote: “A theme-park film, for example, the Marvel type pictures, where the theatres become amusement parks, that’s a different experience. It’s not cinema, it’s something else. And we shouldn’t be invaded by it, and that’s a big issue, and we need the theatre owners to step up for that. “ Recently he wrote an essay published in Harper’s Bazaar, in praise of another legendary filmmaker, Federico Fellini. Another wave of backlash, though smaller, followed, where Scorsese was called an elitist for some of the things he said, like: “In the present day, the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, ‘content.’” When Howard Stern asked RDJ whether Marvel movies were cinema, Iron Man said “Well, it’s playing in theatres” Samuel L Jackson was also asked to comment on this, and he said “That’s like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny” further noting that not everyone likes Scorsese’s films. It’s worth noting here that Scorsese didn’t say Marvel movies aren’t good, just that they are not cinema. Where do we stand on this? What is cinema?

In 2019, legendary director Martin Scorsese made the news for saying that Marvel movies weren’t cinema. The backlash was louder than the statement, perhaps because the Marvel movie franchise is so hugely successful and beloved, but perhaps the fact that I called it a franchise should give us some sort of a hint. Quote: “A theme-park film, for example, the Marvel type pictures, where the theatres become amusement parks, that’s a different experience. It’s not cinema, it’s something else. And we shouldn’t be invaded by it, and that’s a big issue, and we need the theatre owners to step up for that. “ Recently he wrote an essay published in Harper’s Bazaar, in praise of another legendary filmmaker, Federico Fellini. Another wave of backlash, though smaller, followed, where Scorsese was called an elitist for some of the things he said, like: “In the present day, the art of cinema is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, ‘content.’” When Howard Stern asked RDJ whether Marvel movies were cinema, Iron Man said “Well, it’s playing in theatres” Samuel L Jackson was also asked to comment on this, and he said “That’s like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny” further noting that not everyone likes Scorsese’s films. It’s worth noting here that Scorsese didn’t say Marvel movies aren’t good, just that they are not cinema. Where do we stand on this? What is cinema?

It quickly gained popularity for being a complex character-driven drama that had everyone glued to their screens, dying to know what happens next. It was widely praised for being one of the most innovative and compelling tv shows of the decade, especially due to its interwoven storylines including many central characters. It was the ultimate water-cooler show, with everyone having favourite characters and theories about what was going to happen. You could not get away from it as it was everywhere. And suddenly, it was gone. The ending will live in infamy forever, defining the show’s legacy, and it effectively removed it from our pop culture. For everything that it once had going for it, and its dedicated fans, that misfire landing means we will never talk of Lost again.

NFTs are in this new digital realm of things that don’t really exist, much like fiat currency. Proposition: NFTs are to the art market what bitcoin is to cash money, and all of these things are bubbles.

At the turn of the last century the industrial revolution drove populations villages to cities, from farms to factories, the foundations for two world war were brewing, genocides were tearing apart the poorest countries while the richer ones enjoyed a revitalised wealth due to technological advances and automatisation. But that was followed by an economic depression, all the while artists in all fields changed the rules of the game and flaunted then all together, producing books and paintings and even films that got to the core of their anxieties. The 20th century was a new world altogether, from political structures to economic models and policies, to the weapons we used, to the kind of art we produced, to the media that informed us of all these things. There is a theory, often disputed, that human societies go through major changes once every 80 to 100 years, thereby forming cycles of change. Is what we are seeing now as the major changes to our globalised society the beginning of a new cycle, 100 years after? We are still seeing a rise in population and growing metropoles, technological advances at the innovation rhythm of the industrial revolution, a rise in fascist ideology all over the world, along with a renewed support for communism, and our art is more decentralised, experimental, and socially conscious than ever. But we have never been so comfortable. We live half our lives on the internet, communication and consumerism is immediate and cheap, and we have never been so easily bored. Economically, the global corporations have successfully decimated the middle classes with fewer rights and benefits and lower wages, politically we are bankrupt, and artistically, everything with something interesting, valuable or new to say is drowned out by Disney sequels, Tik Tok white rap trends, self help celebrity cook books, and Rupi Kaur toilet wipe poems. As Frankie Boyle observed almost a decade ago, “we are a culture in freefall.”