Western Australia had the last Blockbuster in the country – and almost certainly the second last in the whole world. It closed in 2019. The accelerating societal collapse since then – the fraying of community, the atomisation of social experience, the retreat into polarisation – is absolutely no coincidence. Quite simply, society has never recovered from the collapse of the video rental industry.
For one thing, there is. This was because I had to interact with a human being between selecting a film and watching it, and I wanted to present them with a well-rounded idea of who I was. I had a healthy appreciation for trash, sure, but I also liked to challenge myself. Or so I wanted Peter at Starland Video, and everyone else I met, to think.
