The Library of Congress has over 9100 films online. They vary from tedious to interesting. Here is 74-year-old Thomas Edison showing how capitalists get it done. loc.gov/item/00694187/
Edison wanted to monopolize the film industry by using patents on every step of the process to prevent competition. Here is his Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera loc.gov/item/00694132/
Edison didn't invent the 1000 or so ideas he held patents for. He just hired people and patented their work. Intellectual property was a big deal in America because one good idea and an investor could make you rich, but Edison weaponized patents. mentalfloss.com/article/51722/…
Edison wanted to keep out European filmmakers as well. By 1908 in American motion pictures were all the rage. The year that Edison Trust brought in other manfacturers to feed a nation wide, low budget rental business model. Films were....shit. edison.rutgers.edu
In "An Empire of Their Own", Neal Gabler captured how Russian, Polish and Eastern European Jews created Hollywood. The 9th Circuit would not enforce patent restrictions on the the new Hollywood studios. Now films embraced and projected the American dream
It could be argued that that the pinnacle and reach of the Hollywood film were in the 30s and 40's. Perhaps 1941 was the pinnacle with the greatest film made...about a media mogul.
Unlike film, TV was decentralized with local media stations affiliated with or owned and operated by a national television network. News was a requirement of the broadcast license with equal access for political candidates. And there were commercials. fcc.gov/media/radio/pu…
TV went from almost nothing to 100% saturation in 20 years. By the mid 60's live news and entertainment began to dominate attention. Did America in the media go from being a carefully crafted film dream to ugly gritty reality? Does media shape America or does America shape media? 
The internet was decentralized and free market. Zuckerberg and a few visionaries changed that. Creating unique American digital villages for each person who can't make free intellectual choices. Kind of like a Polish ghetto. Offensive Beck is not wrong. thewrap.com/glenn-beck-com…
Marshal Mcluhan naively said we would live in a digital village. Connected 24/7. He did know that the targeted demos, peer pressure and algorithms would divide those people into unique, opposing and often isolated villages.
We would learn that the two way internet unlike film, books or TV and would attract and link together a dark side. Social misfits, manipulators, misfits, the slope pated, con men and stalkers. Many using internet anonymity to cause violence and confusion. eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2…
I would propose that government educate itself on the negative aspects of an unregulated communication tool that is increasingly being used to attack, mislead and damage Americans. They had no problem regulating films, radio and television but seem baffled on how to "internet".
The use of the internet in raising money and deciding elections is becoming increasingly manipulated. The global village is becoming the global pogrom as fuckerists use the naïveté of the audience to trick and mislead. Just like film is ultimately a trick. studiobinder.com/blog/when-were…
Instead of racing to "connect" Americans we should be racing to "protect" them from deliberately harmful material that is intended to inflame, mislead or con. We just went through four years of seeing this happening live with the Bannon/Prince/Theil/CA/Mercer/PsyGroup etc pricks.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
