Now all restaurants are Taco Bell

Get your hardcopies, sooner rather than later.

“Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.”

To me, this is one of the most memorable lines from Demolition Man.

Demolition man actually has a host of lessons for our current moment in time, but the one that I take away wasn’t explicitly in the movie, per se. Well… it was, and it wasn’t.

The first time I saw Demolition Man was probably on TV in the mid 90s. And I distinctly remember that the restaurant that won the franchise wars was Taco Bell. (And thus, all restaurants became Taco Bell.) However, when I watched the movie again perhaps 15 years later, much to my surprise, all restaurants were Pizza Hut.

Both in the dialogue and in the logos used, Pizza Hut had replaced Taco Bell.

This stunned and confused me. And you shrug it off, or accept that you’re crazy - because I was 100% certain the restauarants were Taco Bell. Why would everything else in the movie be exactly as I remember it, but this one, non-critical detail would be so significantly different?

Only recently I got my answer as to why: per this Vulture article, apparently the European version and the American version used different restaurants.

https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/interview-demolition-man-writer-daniel-waters.html

Let’s play the “what if” game, for a moment. Let’s forget that this was a deliberate decision based upon regional/market differences. Let’s suppose that Warner Bros and Silver Pictures instead sold the rights to the movie to Pizza Hut, and Pizza Hut decided to change all the references from Taco Bell to Pizza Hut after initial release.

That’s not a difficult hypothetical to imagine. It might not make much sense in 1993 for a company to do so, but the world today is different.

To the extent that these movies are just entertainment it’s not very significant that a company has the ability to change it retroactively. But I think we would all agree that, in the current world, entertainment is culture. I would put forth that the movies and shows we consume - particularly at the younger ages - are a much greater part of the fabric of society that connects us to our fellow American as compared to just a few years ago.

(Though, I would note that cultural centerpieces are becoming fewer and less impactful. Previous generations regarded Walter Cronkite as the most trusted man in the country. Current generations experience their existences through the lens of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube, and each reality that each individual experiences is a little different. More to the point: there is no Walter Cronkite, or anything comparable, for the current generation.; there is no central figure or philosophy that unites us.)

The few things that connect us are the media that we consume, particularly for younger ages. The best singular example is Disney.

Think how many of us grew up watching Lion King, Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast… the list goes on and on. Any lower-middle class family and above grew up with these staples, and they form a common bond between us. (I remember randomly joining in some singing of a long list of Disney songs with some of my music-major friends outside the Applause Cafe at UMD when I was there for undergrad in the early 2000s. Disney songs were the only songs that we all know the medoly [and harmony] and lyrics to.) More generally, Disney is one of very few unique and common threads between all of us.

Back to the hypothetical: What is to stop Disney from altering Lion King to turn Nala (Simba’s childhood friend, girlfriend, mate, and mother of his cub) into a male lion? As opposed to the usual cute puppy-love type story (between guys and gals) that Disney is well known for, it could be instead an “inclusive,” coming-of-age story of a gay youth.

In the past, an author writing a book could edit and update the language used (or even the content) and it would take the form of a new edition. But this takes time and money, and is not done lightly. Additionally, the new editions are easily distinguishable from the older ones (also noting that all of the prior editions remained in circulation.)

Not too long ago, retroactively editing a movie or show would have incurred significant cost without generating much benefit. However, now, with the current technology that exists, retroactively editing a movie or show can be executed without as much resource. But more importantly, 1) because of the shift in ideologies (that is, because of the beliefs held by the Woke Fundamentalists which have infected the leadership of many of these companies - especially Disney) many companies have ideological incentive to retroactively edit their properties, and 2) since fewer hard copies exist of more recent productions - mostly because of everything having converted to streaming - the edited versions are indistinguishable from the original, and the retroactive edits will thus have a more widespread impact.

As a result, companies now have both the means and the incentive to engage in widespread (let’s call it what it is) revisionist whitewashing to align their past products - which we all grew up with and hold dear, despite any culture flaws - with their present-day ideological bends.

But the changes might not even have to be that overt. They could stealth-sub certain pieces of dialogue to that they now deem as “problematic” and most people wouldn’t know the difference.

You might not have a problem with gay-Simba coming-of-age story. But the larger issue is more to do with whether you want the culture icons of your past to be a manipulative tool which powerful corporations (or governments) use to influence your children. That is, you might not mind gay-Simba; but it won’t stop with gay-Simba; how do you feel about polygamous Simba? Or pedophile Simba?

In any case, what’s the takeaway? What’s the solution?

The solution is to get hard copies of everything that you value of what you want to transmit to your children. If that’s a certain set of books, then get those books. If it’s a certain set of movies or shows (or games), then get copies of those items; but also make sure you will always have access to the particular form of media. (That is, if you are buying blu-rays, make sure you have a few Blu-ray players. Or better yet, rip them to a digital bank so that you can maintain the ability to make hard copies for when/if the medium changes. Home-movie reels [e.g., Super 8] were cutting-edge until they were made obsolete by VHS, which was cutting edge until DVD… then Blu-ray. Expect this cycle to continue. )

In a future article, I’ll compile my list of must-have books, movies, and shows.

It used to be that the abuses of Big Government was the prime concern in American society. We are now at a point where Big Tech has more power than Big Government. Truthfully, Facebook can control and sway an election by simply including or omitting a reminder to “go vote” when a person opens their Facebook, and do so based upon what Facebook percieves to be their political leanings.

(And for the sake of argument, since Disney is now a streaming company, let’s go ahead and lump them in with the rest of Big Tech.)

If you don’t want Big Tech rewriting culture for your children, now is the time to make preparations so that you will be able to pass on to your children whatever culture elements you deem important.