Do you own what you buy?
I would argue that you don’t. At least not for long.
People aren’t aware of how little they own. The things we buy online, movies, games, books, are just licenses to access that content. Licenses which can be revoked at any time. Taken away from you, without cause, without reason and without compensation. Money literally stolen from your hands.
This is the new trend of our time. Everything is now digital, and subscription services have degraded what it means to own media. Long gone are the days when you could walk into a store and easily purchase a physical DVD. And despite the millions of streaming platforms for every kind of media, it has never been harder to find content. We own nothing. These subscription services have destroyed the very art they claim to provide.
Why buy a book when you can rent it on your Kindle? Why purchase a DVD when you can stream it on demand? Why go to a library when you can purchase the publication online?
Why own physical goods when you can lease them for a short period of time?
But what if the lease expires? What if the platform deems your purchase no longer valid? What if you are barred from accessing what you own? If we can no longer possess what we buy, we can no longer buy to possess.
Think of all the art that will become lost. The Library of Alexandria is burning around us, and we are heaping gasoline onto the fire. Historians, scholars and everyday people no longer have the right to enjoy the fruits of human progress. History shows that when art is consolidated in the hands of the few, everyone becomes more ignorant.
We have decided that we no longer need to own the products we buy. Companies have noticed this desire and sell us products that cost little and hold no value. Instead of a one-time purchase, why not pay a monthly fee? It soon becomes our only option. We don’t even notice when the fee is more expensive than the DVD. Because there are no more DVDs. And we wouldn’t buy them even if they were.
But it’s not just movies; it’s science and literature too. When scientific research carries a monthly premium, science becomes only for the elite. And when the servers inevitably go down, where will the achievements of science and culture go?
There is an ongoing war against our history, and we should all take up arms against it. We are no longer allowed to keep records of the past — we are not even allowed to make copies of the present. We have bargained away our right to human culture, and we will certainly pay dearly for that loss.
Convenience has outweighed historical value and soon there will be nothing left to show of our culture. We have no need for records; does that mean we believe ourselves above them? I think there is a certain hubris in societies which believe they will last forever.
The next time you stream a movie, or rent a book on Amazon, please consider the consequences for the future of society.