In an "Upward Mobility" column in The Wall Street Journal - a column that appeared in print on December 9, 2025 - Jason L. Riley opined that it would "soon be curtains for the movie theatre." He could be right! As a "pull quote" in the hardcopy edition of the newspaper put it: "older generations can't be bothered to go, and younger people want to stream their films." Right at the end of his essay, Riley expanded on this "pull quote," as follows:
Younger generations raised on smaller screens can’t miss what they never experienced, and they seem mostly to enjoy staring at themselves on their devices, which is a topic for another day. In any case, streaming allows them to consume movies on their terms rather than the theater’s, and Netflix is giving them what they want.
Let me address Riley's "topic for another day" right here - and right now. As he notes, our relationships with truth and reality, are now most typically experienced as we gaze into a "screen" of some kind. That includes how we relate to the movies we watch, but the same phenomenon is evident in education, in business, in social interchanges, and in politics. A preference for human interactions mediated by our "screens," and by "online" exchanges instead of "real life" exchanges, has diverted a lot of real life political action into online engagement - when it hasn't switched it off, entirely.
I don't think this kind of approach to politics will "compute," to pick a verb. Effective political action requires real people gathering in small groups, meeting frequently and jointly working to achieve specific governmental actions - making our so-called "elected representatives" actually represent the people they are charged with representing.
I recently had occasion to respond to a Santa Cruz County resident who is upset with a proposed development proposal in an unincorporated part of the County, and who had written me for encouragement, asking if she and her neighbors were, now, basically, "powerless." As I read Riley's observations about the movies, and thought about some of the political implications of the migration of so much of our lives, including our politics, "online," my advice to this county resident came to mind:
I don’t really know anything about this proposed development. It’s in “the County,” not the City, so the land use policies of the County will apply, and the Supervisor who represents this District is, by reputation, pretty pro-development. State law is also very supportive of higher density housing developments, so I am sure this is an uphill battle. However, “powerless” is not the right word.
The key thing, I believe, is to have an organized group in opposition. Such a group would need to meet, in person, on a frequent (probably weekly) basis, and learn everything that can be known about the project, and then build broad opposition to the project as now proposed, and then make the County Supervisor who represents this area know how much opposition there is, so the Supervisor starts working to respond to local constituents.
Bottom line, local residents are not “powerless,” but they need to get organized to consolidate and maximize their power - they need to spend a lot of time (and probably some money) to impact governmental decisions, in an environment in which lots of residents are really “detached,” and in which the state government is now affirmatively helping development interests defeat local residents who [oftentimes quite properly] are opposed to a development proposal that might have very negative environmental and other impacts.
The need for "in-person" engagement is necessary for effective political action at all levels - local, state, and national. To be politically effective, in other words, we need to do it in "real life," not "online," and we need to reallocate our time so that "politics" and "political organizing" gets some increased and appreciable share of the time not already absolutely committed somewhere else.
Less "entertainment," and more "engagement." Whatever the future for the movie theater, that's the prescription that will keep our politics healthy.
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