What it is about entertainment that keeps us enthralled? Hooked and distracted by carefully crafted forms and expressions of what we call ‘entertainment’. Put there initially to entertain, but seems to be a consuming conveyor of industry now. Once you are in the corporate fold for it, seems you are no longer you. Similar maybe to how we get treated once we are born, as part of the societal cog we are brought up to believe we are so important to. But just as in that structure you would have workers, soldiers, royalty etc, there is another layer that gets overlooked as important. Look at the film Antz for a basic on what I mean, it’s a good watch, but is about society, being an individual as well part of the collective, and saving society from a nefarious eugenicist plan by the head of the military. But they keep the structure basic as i mentioned, wanting us to liken ourselves to ants and other hive creatures, busying ourselves for our purpose, so the queen can flourish and then repeat the cycle.

Yet there is layer that is always there, in different forms. I’ll start from when I think of them being portrayed as an important part of life.

Greek Tragedies – theatre performed by actors portraying human nature, myths and traditions, apparently as early as 5BC.

Jesters, those medieval tricksters that heavily feature in Nephilim stories and appear in the royal courts, to keep the king or queen amused they say. While on the streets of the average folk having a scaled down puppeteered version in Punch and Judy. And another custom which is interesting, mostly relevant, but a bit of a tangent here.

Plays also became a big thing around the mid 1300’s, with theatre performances being encouraged by the church they say, telling bible stories and the lives of the saints. Maybe then it was realised that visual propaganda can be a powerful tool.

Mop Fairs – we still have some around today, but they are known more as funfairs these days. But back in the day, they were created to match workers with employers, so a job drive really. But off the back of the black death (and before the Statute of Cambridge in 1388 – covered in my article A Working Strategy) it seems they already found a way to limit and control people. Holding local events, to create a contract between employer and employee, making the skilled person show their trade by way of a symbol on their persons (straw for farmer, wool for shepherd, and a mop for an unskilled person). Once you had come to an agreement and your employment secured for a year, you were given a ‘token’ of a shilling, and a ribbon to signify you were taken. Sounds all very organised doesn’t it? If not a little weird and controlling. And as a bonus, they started to put on stalls for games, drinking and for them to be able to spend that token as fast they got it. It is said – “The whole event became a major festival and eventually was condemned for the drunkenness and immorality they encouraged”. But still falls into the category of entertainment, to a point, making a very public spectacle of people’s skills and ability to pay their own way. I’m sure someone found that very entertaining, as well as humiliating and quite demoralising for the people going through it perhaps.

But back to forms of keeping people enthralled. I can’t imagine it really got to take hold until the advent of cameras and moving film, following on from literature in the form of fiction. But again, we are led to believe that most average people were illiterate and couldn’t read, only the wealthy, and those who had time to partake of fanciful thoughts and ideas. Same with theatre, as time has gone on, we have had a pricing system which determines usually who gets to go, and different types of presentations for those who may have different tastes. Like opera and live music generally, there are many different styles and tastes and would have been a great source of amusement and enjoyment over the centuries. But again, until technology has allowed us to record and repeat music and songs, it would have been a small number at any one time being exposed to it.

I will skip to modern times now, with a perfected mechanism of exposure really between all the devices and forms of entertainment. The First Fad covered the psychology behind the basics of it back in the 50’s, but we can easily see the product of it all around us. Music, games, TV, film, news and all forms of entertainment condensed and contained to be dipped into when you so wish. No longer having to wait like the good old days, or even stop being entertained by it all if you want it to go on for days. Choosing to immerse yourself in another world, written and constructed with distraction in mind, and most people know this. They want this and rightly so, sometimes life can be a bit draining and you do want to ‘switch off’ for a bit. But do many people give any thought to what it is they are wanting to escape from? Or do they spend time watching to be inspired? It’s one thing to have something to compliment reality, but it can also be used to escape reality, so it’s the individual that needs to decide which one it is.

So, in all that, what is the purpose it really serves. What help is it to anyone if you are distracted from your life? Not really noticing real things change, because you are so used to watching things being the same. And some of those things you watch, repeat the things they want you to believe, and want you to think you know. Nothing becomes a billion dollar enterprise by accident, and certainly not without purpose, so the whole ‘entertainment’ industry is part of the hydra, multiple heads of the same beast. Creating a strange ‘reality’ for people to be in. I used to wonder about people who want to be actors, who seem to find it so easy to pretend to be someone else, to essentially lie for a living, and the more convincing you are, the more you are applauded. How do they ever know who they are? If they are any good of course. But creating a persona to cope or deal with the outside world is possibly a natural thing, or a consequence of our own reaction to how we have become. We may have been different before daily news programs, newspapers being made a thing for people and being notified of things whether you are interested or not. Would people have just been concerned with getting on and living? I’ll never know, and sometimes think entertainment is a good thing, as it spawns ideas and creativity, indulging an output we apparently never had the chance for before. But as with lots of things that start with good intentions or have a plus side, there is usually someone or something that will try to take advantage of that…

(c) K Wicks