The Search for Meaning, or the Lack Therof

Edit: Warning, rant ahead.

Once upon a time, the world was a wholesome and meaningful place. It could be argued that everything seemed to have more soul, and was somehow more important. Things were made to last, and things used to cost a lot of money and were hard to come by so many people didn't have much of them. Life used to be a lot more difficult, and people gained character because of it. Not only that, but life used to be a lot more dangerous and short so people made the most of what they were given. Real values were taught to children, and they had to learn to calculate math in their heads and not with calculators. I should add that I am talking about recent history here, recent meaning going back to the change of the century, 1900's style.

Oh how so much has changed. Almost everything made today is not made to last, and almost everything is complete junk. People don't have morals, standards or values. Children are spoilt rotten and are never disciplined, which makes them whiny whinging little devils.

Perhaps this paramount change in society has had effects elsewhere as well. Society as a whole has become obsessed with image and flashy superficial gimmicks. In fact, I suppose this is what they expect from films these days as well - a few fancy special effects, their favourite actors and some quick whipped up story that says little and lacks a lot of substance. Worse yet, they don't even need to mean anything.

Of course there are exceptions - there are some genuinely good recent films out there, most of which were produced on the independent front, or even rarer still the occasional big budget film, which is usually based off an older product from an older era. Why does society today edge away from intellectual, meaningful films? Are they that turned off by something that might affect them for the better? I guess that money and sex are the only things that matter to the majority of the population, as popularized by modern culture and the popular hip hop/rap music.

Things need to change, and I only hope that society will be willing to accept this change and leave behind their current ways of thinking and living. Stories can have a profound impact on societal values, so it needs to start with the storytellers, the writers and the filmmakers of today. If you are going to produce a story, make it mean something. Instill some values back into the social fabric, and return back to basics. Watch some older films or read some older books, and feel the amount of soul and depth hiding inside them, and see how different they are from the current examples out today. Although today's films might be a lot better technically, there is often something that seems missing or lacking. We need some more soul, before the world becomes a lifeless husk of what it used to be.