PROGRESS?????

You know that technology has done a lot of great things in this world and then again it has done as much harm as good.  I was informed in a business training meeting that soon we will be forced to give up our flip phones for I phones.  Now I was one of the last hold outs to give up my bag phone.  It had more power and better coverage than this little thing that fits in my pocket.
     Now I remember when the communication for the regular guy was a CB radio, remember your handle?  Then they gave us more channels and took away half the power.  And when we upped the power with a little box they would come scouring the countryside for these 'outlaws' who wanted to talk across the township.  Yet at the same time the skip operators ran 1000 watt liniers and scrambled the regular signals from downtown Miami Florida.  They never could catch him.
     Then there was the adaptation of radios that were supposed to be for another purpose.  They came looking for us then too.  Then came the cell phone.  It moved from a cumbersome mounted unit, to the bag phone, then the flip phone, and now the I phone.  Mind boggling.
     Here in Kansas the modernization of the movie industry is slowly killing itself off.  We restore the historic theaters so we can enjoy entertainment in an atmosphere that the last 3 generations enjoyed.  Now technology is killing even this.
      Movies now come in digital formats.  This means that the updated video projection, that was upgraded from film, has to be replaced again.  Kind of like Detroit's Planned Obsolesence, you know where that got them.  The result is more theaters closing because the economics are not there.
      An updated Digital Projection system cost from $80,000 to $100,000 dollars.  This is by an industry that was scared to death that the advent of video stores would kill theaters off.  Yet the prices and crowds remain.  There is no experience better than a full screen theater presentation of the movies complete with the popcorn and jew jew beans. 
      In Kansas we have only five operating Drive In Movie theaters.  The rest have gone the way of the Edsel, (bet there are a lot of kids who doesn't know what that is).  Here in Medicine Lodge we have the Pageant Drive In.  It is a throw back to the past and it is fun.  You can even rent the drive in for the evening for your birthday party.  We watched Blazing Saddles when a local man hit an important birthday mark a while back.
     The operators spent thousands of dollars to do the upgrades to video and the FM radio transmitter.  But now it has been announced that this is the last season.  The cost cannot be absorbed.  Seems to me the Movie Industry is fulfilling their own prophecy.  They are putting themselves out of business for digital downloads and home cable and satallite movie channels.
     Technology that kept the business alive now is killing it.  Is Progress really that great or is the industry that stupid. 
     See ya at the movies kid!