The corporate media has been nothing but a plague on the news industry, but as my loyal readers will also notice, I've made an even bigger deal about how it's been a disease on our entertainment industry. Overall, I consider this industry a far more important one in the long-run than the news industry because, over the course of generations, news stories will be forgotten, political pendulums will swing, parties will evolve and change, and what was a huge deal today will be a joke 10 years from now. 

But stories truly speak to us and the lessons in them are remembered for ages. We're still quoting Shakespeare to this day, and you yourself have a movie, television show, book, or even video game in your mind that profoundly impacted you and helped define your view of the world. 

Modernity really did a number on our storytelling ability, at least in the mainstream. I consider this one of the greatest tragedies to befall us as a species, as storytelling is the primary way we convey morals and ethics over large lengths of time. For instance, we wouldn't have "innocent until proven guilty" and "fair trial in the court of law" without the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate in The Bible. Without that story, our justice system might look a bit different. 

Stories don't just help us shape a civilized society through the lessons they impart, they also impart deeper meanings to our existence as thinking and feeling creatures. 

Funny enough, the inspiration for this piece I'm writing now came from the release of the "28 Years Later" trailer. 

For those of you aren't familiar with the series, the "28" series revolves around a zombie apocalypse and the collapse of society. Zombie movies are often seen as visceral horror flicks that combine all sorts of scary elements to create a gripping and thrilling good time. However, when done well, they're perfect at conveying a deeper story about the fragility of society, the fallout from cowardice, and the strength of human bonds. Even terrible zombie movies, like "World War Z," can have moments that express this very well, such as Brad Pitt's character positioning himself on the ledge of a building just in case he turns into a zombie after he comes in contact with zombie blood in order to save his family. 

The "28" series is, in my opinion, the best at portraying this. It's gritty, realistic, but displays real heart. It doesn't resort to bloody horror for the sake of shock value. Every death means something. This was similar to "The Walking Dead" before it became a meandering mess of shock value between nothing happening. My hope is that the "28" series keeps up its excellent storytelling... because we need it right now. 

We're drowning in a sea of meaningless stories that touch on temporary political points in order to please a few and preach at the many, rather than timeless lessons that benefit humanity as a whole. 

I recently covered how the recent Snow White trailer more or less confirmed that this modern retelling is going to fall back on the same "girl-boss" trope that Disney's been serving up for years now. On my YouTube channel, I talked about how modern writers and actors missed what Snow White was really about, and that the original story gave us a message that modern woke writers can't seem to wrap their head around. 

Mainstream storytellers, or at least most of them, fell into one trap or another. They rely on CGI-heavy visuals to wow, modern political sentiments as a replacement for actual storytelling, and use the ever-declining star power to try to get you to stick with it. Subtlety is out the window, replaced with in-your-face visuals and messaging, over-explaining, and meaninglessness. 

If one thing needs to be handed to the people, it's not just the ability to become the media in terms of news, but also become the media in terms of entertainment. I think that's fast becoming reality. The internet has made filmmakers out of regular people. Short films litter YouTube that are fantastic, and one YouTuber might have created the scariest horror movie ever seen in "Skinamarink," which doesn't utilize CGI monsters or over-the-top story beats, but long shots and darkness. 

But now, OpenAI also released Sora, an AI video generation program that can make some very impressive, and highly realistic videos. Once this technology advances to a point where you can effectively make static environments, people, or objects, Hollywood will effectively become obsolete. 

This is going to bring back meaning to storytelling. The big stage will suddenly be split into many stages, and each of us will have a piece of it. 

And once that happens, we can begin telling stories we'll remember again. We can start to teach each other, and our children, important morals and lessons. Stories about good guys and bad guys can return. Real meaning can be given to messages in these stories again. 

Messages that we need to be reminded of, such as the importance of family, service, loyalty, self-respect, and standing up for what is right. 

I don't think it's an accident that our moral decay in society reached the depths it has when Hollywood's depravity began leaking out into the world. The stories became hollow and oftentimes laced with horrible suggestions and ideas. Immorality was glorified, and every villain wasn't just evil, they all had a gray area that you could identify and possibly empathize with. 

While that works from time to time, it's a trope that only works if the villain is worth sympathizing with, and most villains seldom are. For instance, Disney's live-action "Cruella" movie was trying to make a hero out of a woman who wanted to kill puppies and wear their skin around. It flopped, thankfully, but it was one more big-budget eye-roll that imparted nothing. It wasn't even escapism. It was just... there. 

Hollywood can't die fast enough.