Everyone fails

The Alamo Drafthouse creates a movie going experience we love so much that we signed up for their monthly movie plan. There aren’t enough good movies in a month worth seeing, but the experience is worth having a few times a month. But recently they shit the bed with their new QR code ordering system. It’s unclear why they decided to ‘digitize’ ordering in the theater, but my assumption is that it was a way to try and reduce cost. But it sucks.

Instead of ordering directly with your server they now want you to scan a QR code and place the order on your phone. Problem is that interacting with your server was one of the most enjoyable parts of going to their theaters. People that work at the theater tend to be young, happy, friendly, and ‘unique.’ I genuinely looked forward to that interaction. Now they want me to stare at my phone.

Second, even with the QR ordering system in place the server still needs to check tickets, but only now he/she/they also have to ask each person three additional questions: Have you been here since we implemented the QR ordering system? Do you know how to use it? Do you want to use the QR system or order through me? Such a waste of time, and most people I heard said they would prefer to order with the human. Us included.

Lastly, even if the above wasn’t true and I didn’t care about any of it, they put the QR code at the furthest point away on each persons table, in a spot that is not lit up. Which means once the previews start and the lights go dark your phone has a nearly impossible time picking up the code. Underneath the table, on the armrest there is a spot just above the cupholder that is lit up and would have been perfect. But somehow that got missed.

It’s a failure. I can’t imagine it’s being highly adopted by Alamo moviegoers as it turns what was once an enjoyable interaction and an opportunity to disconnect into just another reason why you have to be staring at your phone. The Alamo Drafthouse is still an awesome place to see a movie. Nobody puts together pre-movie media the way that they do, and the theater sets you back to a different era of movies. But as good as they are, they have failed at this new attempt. 

It just goes to show no matter who you are you’re going to stumble. Even if you’ve already experienced success there is going to be setbacks. But how you deal with those missteps is what matters. I’m curious to see what they do to rectify the experience. 

People’s Opinions Are Not Their Own

Most people don’t even realize that when it coms to politics and world events, that is to say things to which they are not intimately involved with, that they don’t actually have an opinion. That the thing or idea they espouse to believe is just a regurgitation of what they have been told. 

How else do you explain people supporting foreign wars that kill millions of innocent people that they have never met and have never threatened them, fought in a place they have never been to?

How else do you explain why people would so easily agree to shut down their businesses, stay locked inside for months, and allow loved ones to die alone in hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics?

Would it really be the opinion of the average person that this was all ok had the ideas not been shoved down their throat?

The same goes for the love and hatred of certain political figures. How do you explain why so many people hold Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden, in such high regard, despite the fact that they have participated in genocide, overthrowing foreign governments, and the relentless bombing of foreign countries.

People hate Russia, China, and Iran, and yet most of these same people have never been to any of these countries (most of them probably don’t even hold a U.S. passport). Most of them have Russian friends, Chinese friends, Persian friends, or have met people from these countries and have never had more than a disagreement with them, and yet they believe, because they’ve been told, that these countries and the people that populate them are bad.

They view these countries as evil and cheer on any talk about destroying them. Whether it is by financial and economic ruin, or through physical aggression. They view it as just and reasonable. And they believe it is an opinion they have formed. It never occurs to them that these countries might just be filled with people similar to the ones they have known in their own lives.

It’s similar to a conversation Jen and I were having during our recent trip to Guatemala. When we told friends and family we were going to Guatemala, many of them said things like “Be careful.” “There’s a lot of crime there.” Which is the same reaction we got when we went to Mexico a year earlier.

We realized that only the people that have never visited these countries say things like “be careful,” “I wouldn’t go there,“ “couldn’t you go somewhere else.” While the people who have been to these places say things like “you’re going to love it.” “Have such a great time!” The former have formed their opinions based on what they see in the media and what they are told. The latter have formed their opinions based on real life experience. Going to a place. Seeing it with their own eyes. Meeting the people. 

I don’t really understand what it is about the human psyche that makes people want to stick their neck out for a belief with absolute certainty without actually having firsthand knowledge of it. I don’t understand how people don’t hesitate and question what they are being told, and look back to their real life experiences for the answers.

It feels like the whole world is suffering from amnesia, forgetting how many times in their lives they’ve been lied to, and how many times something they believed to be so absolutely true turned out to be so absolutely false.

It’s so frustrating to live in an age of information surrounded by people who are uninformed and unconscious, and yet hell bent on making “their” opinions heard. People who just accept what they are told, and then repeat it as if it’s facts they’ve uncovered. It’s an insane world to live in.