Movies and Missiles

When the entertainment industry is framed as the replacement for endless military spending, it doesn't sound so bad. Indeed, as Michael J. Wolf (any relation to Michael J. Fox?) puts it, "the missile in the silo just sits there gathering dust. You make a movie, on the other hand, and you can potentially release it again and again" (6). To some degree, movies and missiles play the same social role; they are both there to keep us safe. The missile keeps us safe from communists and terrorists while the movie keeps us safe from the boredom created by the very lifestyle that the missile is forcibly defending.

But why is it that entertainment took over when stealth bombers were no longer quite as essential? When we are faced with all this supposed free time, why do we spend it watching TV and movies, surfing the net, and reading news about the latest governor's sexual exploits? We do not create. We don't even destroy. We just sit there. Picture yourself watching a movie with your friends in a nice living room, sitting on nice couches and pillows. No one is talking. Now imagine the TV isn't there. There you all are sitting on a nice couch in a nice room surrounded by people you supposedly like, and all of you (instead of interacting) are sitting perfectly still, staring contentedly at the same point in space (for two hours).

Increasingly, the old saying "All the world's a stage" is becoming far too literal. There are few spaces that can be taken at face value; life consists of manufactured experiences meant to recreate some other point in space and time. Destiny USA's re-creation of Tuscany is a case-in-point. Rather than intervene in downtown Syracuse and enrich its own history and urbanism, Congel decides it is better to implant not only Italian architectural pastiche, but an entire Italian village, potentially at the cost of downtown's revitalization. But at the end of the day, downtown is not entertaining. The only part that is currently successful (Armory Square) is so only because of its concentration of restaurants and bars, places of consumptive entertainment.