draft
Growing
up in America, I have been trained to believe that the “free
market” solves all problems. That the invisible hand will
inevitably lead to an equilibrium position that will be the optimal
use of resources. Like any good cult, we are also taught to
disregard any data or example that contradicts the central tenets.
Any such example must be shown to be invalid because the free market
is always right.
I
have an excellent example here where the free market is one more time
proven to not only find the optimal solution, it actually finds the
only possible solution that could be acceptable to a right thinking
American. No disgusting socialism or wooly thinking for us! The
free market is always right.
Once
upon a time, Stanley Kubrick attempted to put together a new print of
his classic Dr. Strangelove: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb (1964). The
film is a classic of black and white cinematography and Kubrick was
tasked to put together the best possible set of prints for a
rerelease sometime long after the original release.
But
he discovered that what should have been a straightforward task was
not because the original negative of the film no longer existed. To
explain this, I have to explain something about how distribution
prints for film used to be made.
The
way this used to work was this: when you have finished editing a
film, you cut the various elements of the film together into an
original negative. From this original negative, which you hope to
touch as little as possible, you then create an interpositive (IP)
and from that an internegative (IN). From the IN you strike as many
prints as you need for exhibition.
Eventually
the IN wears out, and then you strike another IN from the IP. In this
way, you never touch the original negative any more than you
absolutely have to. But this costs money you see, not much money, but
money. So when the IN would wear out, instead of striking another IN
from the IP, the studio (?) would save a few bucks by just cutting
out the relevant parts of the neg and adding it to the IN and strike
more prints. Which means that the original negative no longer
existed, and the best that Kubrick could do was to go back to the IP.
In
order to save a few thousand dollars, the original and best version
of one of the classics of Western cinema was destroyed. As well it
should have been. Nothing is more sacred than the profits issued to
the shareholders. To even consider otherwise is sacrilage.
The idea that there are still morons out there who actually think that the profit-motive should have anything to do with cultural legacy or any other value driven topic, such as health care, education and justice, is clearly a person who has been driven mad by ideology and has nothing to contribute to the political process.
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