Please pardon the illustration: I’m trying to make a point.
We don’t watch commercial television, and I’m not about to start now. But friends who do watch it tell us we’re missing a lot of really gross commercials. Men smooching men, women smooching women, lots of leering, etc., etc.
Much has been written, and supported by more evidence than we’d really like to have, about Disney Corp. et al grooming children for sex. And I found myself thinking, “They’re not just grooming children. They’re trying to groom all the rest of us, too.”
I can’t get rid of this thought. Millions of people watch millions of hours of TV, absorbing a staggering amount of sexual messaging. If they didn’t think it was working, they wouldn’t be doing it. But of course they’ve been doing it for years and years: “Sex sells,” is an advertising truism.
The ancient lawgiver, Solon, greatly disliked the first play he saw put on in Athens. Asked why, he answered–to the effect, “All this sleazy stuff you put on stage is going to find its way into our daily business.” He was right about that then; but he’s even more on target now: more than he would ever have believed was possible.
We as a people really need to stop watching this stuff. It gets under an audience’s skin. It pollutes their culture. Need we say it has poured its toxins into our public education system?
I only pray that homeschooling will grow fast enough to save us.
I’m with Solon on this point. Years ago, my TV quit working, and after two weeks without television, I found that I could not stand to watch television. I had de-desensitized to the effects of television.
I am not against drama, comedy, or music, but I think that a steady diet of these things is not good for us. Imagine someone living in the years before recorded music and moving pictures; listening to music, or seeing a play was only possible in a live setting. It was a special event for most people, and many people probably never experienced seeing a play. In a small town, perhaps there was a bandstand and the musicians were probably townspeople, or perhaps an itinerant group of musicians.
Having been involved in the production of live music, many times in my life, I can tell you that the air is charged with emotional energy during a live performance. The audience feels it, and the musicians feel it as well. Now, I own many music CDs, and can listen to a wide array of Jazz, Classic Rock, Classic Country and Blues any time I want, but listening to recorded music is not a very stimulating experience, when compared to the feeling of playing live music for an audience.
Recorded music and video is like a sugar bowl. If one were to stir a single teaspoon of sugar into your morning coffee, it won’t harm the health of the average person, unless there is an underlying problem. Quantity is the key, because a large quantity of sugar is probably going to have negative consequences on the health of its consumer.
Most of my music listening happens while driving. It’s a good match, because music can be listened to without necessarily distracting the listener from the task of driving. But listening while driving, by its nature, limits the amount of time spent listening to music.
These days, it would be feasible to watch videos or listen to music, literally every waking hour. Anyone with a smart phone can load music, and even videos, which can be partaken of at will. This sort of music listening would have been impossible until relatively recently. Portable music players have been around for decades, but the ability to digitally store thousands of sound in a small device is relatively recent.
The tail now wags the dog, and the entertainment we once used to sweeten the passage of time, has now become the substance of life’s experience for many persons. It’s not a healthy way to live, and opens a door to abuse, on the part of content creators. To wit, a person saturated with entertainment sources can be easily influenced, which is a perfect platform for grooming.
Those handful of TV shows I happen to see, while visiting others, for instance, I am frequently surprised by how blatantly manipulative these show can be, not to mention the amount of sexual content. It’s not surprising to me that this is changing attitudes and the expectations of viewers, including impressionable youth, who grow up in a social context where sex is part of everyday entertainment. It’s a far cry from the days when you might spend Friday nights at the bandstand, listening to a few locals doing their best to make good music, from a limited assortment of instruments.
“All this sleazy stuff you put on stage is going to find its way into our daily business.”
Music and video aside, there has always been the storyteller.
The difference between therapeutic effects, and toxic effects is the dose. I agree; we need storytellers and I think that we need musicians. The problem, as I see it, comes with the ubiquitous nature of entertainment in our day. We need time to reflect.
That’s exactly what happened to me, when my TV broke, all those years ago. The effects of TV has time to wear off, and, at lest in my case, I realized that there was a hypnotic effect to it. Once I realized that to be the case, I would bristle when I was exposed to broadcast TV, which is paced to maximize the impact of advertising, and creates a highly suggestible state.
This is far different from a more one-to-one approach to entertainment. The most enjoyable way to pay music in public is in a quiet little club somewhere, with a small audience, close by. I would much prefer to hear a gifted reader read the story of Snow White, than to see some highly produced video with all sorts of effects. The Beatles made a huge impact, in great part because their early music was straightforward and could be effectively played in a guitar, guitar, bass, drum quartet, with solid vocals. Simple is good.
A sing-along around a campfire; a full orchestra belting out Beethoven… we can enjoy both. But I don’t much care for commercial music–e.g., music used to back up commercials.
I enjoy certain TV shows immensely. Somehow most of them are quite old and I watch them without commercials, online. I won’t watch them with commercials. It’s amazing to me, how well some of the classics hold up.
We watch the TV programs we have pre-recorded so we can fast forward the commercials.