From a certain perspective, capitalism is the environment into which we are born, and conditions within it are corrosive: we either adapt to those conditions in order to survive — people will always have to be taught how to tend the machines, and it has been said, after all, that humans are the reproductive organs of machines — or build a sturdy environment suit, or we are seriously harmed. Which casts many of us as good little prisoners or effective wasteland scavengers.
Which train of thought always, somehow, puts me in mind of this most pure and most awful statement on wrapping industry around you like poisoned armour:
The pursuit of making money is the only reason to make movies. We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. Our obligation is to make money, and to make money, it may be important to make art, it may be necessary to make history. To make money, it may be important to win the Academy Award, for it might mean another $10 million at the box office. Our only objective is to make money, but in order to make money; we must always make entertaining movies.
– Don Simpson, 1980.
(written February 2015)