These days, people seem reluctant to change. We become so enthralled in our fear of the unknown, working hard to control every aspect of the world around us that we have become unwilling to allow change to happen.

This can be seen in a variety of ways, and I would like to go into great detail on them all, but for the focal point of this piece, I will focus on media and entertainment, and why media has progressively become a form of entertainment.

You don’t have to be a detective to see how music and film have seemingly exhausted every ounce of human imagination in every conceivable genre that exists. Between horror movie remakes, the mainstreaming of blended Gangsta Rap and Suburban Metal, Disney’s continuous theft of Shakespearian literature, and the indoctrination of Pop Country, film studios and record company executives are turning out recycled garbage en masse.

George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, it seems as if our current has no memory, so allow me to give you a refresh: in the 1965, Otis Redding wrote, performed and released the song R-E-S-P-E-C-T, which was a flop for a famous artist, however, when the mic was passed to soul diva, Aretha Franklin, the song was an instant success. This goes to show that not all reprisals are redundant atrocities, but when the diva tried to make the Adele hit, Rolling in the Deep, her own, it became a new kind of atrocious!

The soul songstress has aged considerably since her glory days, and that is evidenced in her catabolic vocals rendition of the already famous tune.

Video games, which are quickly becoming so technologically advanced, that playing them is comparable to a choose-your-own-adventure movie. Most recently, we can all take a look at Resident Evil (get ready for it…) THE REMAKE! Not another sequel to the original, and certainly not a new directional focus for game enthusiasts, but a literal telling of the same story, just with better graphics. All of it has been done before.

The new strategy is to simply make things bigger, brighter, and louder than ever before. Nevertheless, there is talent within each of these mediums; however, it is decidedly squandered for the sake of shock, outstanding graphics, and special effects, but especially, money—lots and lots of money.

There simply comes a time when some things should simply be given the R-E-S-P-E-C-T they deserve, and the dignity they have earned, and allowed to die a natural death. Why must we continue to fret over the same ideas, trends, and marketable garbage? We, as a society, need to learn how take risks again. We need to learn what it means to imagine. And, most of all, find that place in our minds that separates us from the beasts: our ability to manifest vision.