A shift is occurring before our very eyes, one that has the potential to transform the Island of Woke back to the Land of Dreams. But it will only be temporary if something is not done about our culture.
Special Sunglasses last time looked at the Disney Civil War, and projected the woke fieflords will lose based on the company’s history.
Much has happened since.
The response to the Will Smith slapping incident at the Oscars is also an indicator change is amidst in Tinsel Town. On April 1, Smith resigned (likely under pressure) from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
More fallout followed. Netflix abandoned Smith’s Fast and Loose movie, and it sounds like Bad Boys 4 is also dead. Tom Connors of Midnight’s Edge mentioned Sony was already well on the way to killing it before the slapping incident.
Then on April 8, Smith was banned from the Academy for ten years.
Screenwriter Kamran Pasha shared on Midnight’s Edge that internally Hollywood was both livid and shocked by Smith’s actions. He said that change was coming to restore the Oscars back to its former glory, not keep it as the woke ratings dumpster fire it has become.
When combined with the Disney Civil War, Discovery Warner CEO’s David Zaslav’s war on woke, and Sony’s massive course corrections with Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s clear the industry is changing.
But it’s also important to remember why. Pasha has previously explained that Hollywood’s shifting away from woke isn’t driven by morality, but greed. That’s only working in favor of fans and families right now because our Western culture has rejected woke ideologies.
Were our culture to lurch further woke, we’d spend money on this low quality filth as Hollywood merrily spat this stuff out.
Cultural Change
Someone once said that culture is what we praise and what we shame.
I would add that it is also how we communicate these values. That’s where art, books, music, movies, games, and all other forms of media come in to play.
In modern culture today, there’s much we praise that should be shamed, and vice versa.
For example, we praise selfish, shallow relationships, while shaming selfless ones.
We praise spending all you have on yourself, while shaming generous debt-free living.
We praise abortion, while shaming the preservation of innocent life.
As bad as things are, we’re thankfully not as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah. The mass resistance against government grooming children in public schools is a sign there’s still life in our death-ridden culture.
But cultural decline is what led to this battle occurring in the first place. The only way to substantially throttle it back is through love.
What Is Love?
This is a word that’s lost its meaning in our culture. Usually it’s spouted when someone is trying to get something out of someone else. But that’s not love; that’s manipulation.
True love involves showing patience, kindness, and selflessness. It’s wanting what’s best for others, not yourself. It’s also not forcing whatever you think is best on someone who doesn’t want it.
True love also acts to protect others, but doesn’t roll over.
What Can You Do?
Changing an entire culture is like steering the Titanic. It’s slow work, not fast.
But you can’t control others, and if you try you’ll end up quite miserable.
As David Kuhnert wrote in his book Servant Leadership, the only things you can control are your choices, and who you trust. Therefore, you can choose actions that will lead you to walking in love towards others.
It only takes one person to make a difference. You’ll never know how far those ripples will go in changing your world.