I was watching King of the Hill, and immediately saw an example of Amusing Ourselves to Death that I felt I should share with my fellow blogees.
The plot includes Hank Hill going temporarily blind from seeing his mother and her new boyfriend, um...well, uh...'doing it'.
Saddened by Hank's temporary blindness, Hank's mother's new boyfriend decides to attempt to help Hank, much to Hank's dismay.
By the end of the show, after gaining Hank's trust, his mother's new boyfriend [sorry, I forgot his name...let's just call him 'X'] takes a blinded-Hank to an evangelical television-church. [We've all seem them, those ones where the guy basically punches you in the face to cure your colon cancer]
Well, because Hank originally went blind from shock, his blindness disappears when he suddenly begins to lose distaste for 'X' and gains his trust. Ironically, his gain of sight happens right as the evangelical television preacher swoons in to 'cure' Hank.
As he pulls away from a newly sighted Hank, Hank opens his eyes and shouts, "Oh my Lord, I can see!" [<---paraphrasing, as I don't quite remember the exact words]
The television preacher shouts, "Oh my Lord, he can see! It's a miracle!...We'll be back after these messages."
I found this eerily similar to Postman's description of how television has warped religion. Preachers seem to be given out-of-this-world superpowers, if you will, by the magic of television.
Now, I'm not a religious person at all, in fact, I dislike religions as a whole, but, I can respect the aspects of religion. But, it is this sort of nonsense that called for complete disassociation from religion in the first place. Literally millions of people tune in and attend these types of 'religious experiences' to bear witness to 'miracles' taking place.
Really, people? Are we THAT gullable? I'm not one to attack anyone's religious beliefs unless coaxed into it, but honestly, do you honestly believe that by the hand of 'God', some middle aged, money grubbing television preacher can suddenly 'cure' anything besides a cold?
Whether you're a spiritual person or not, you must find some sort of fault in the logic of television preaching. Postman was amazing in his observation of the tragic comedy of these shows. Because, that's all they really are anyway; shows. They build an aura around the preacher, a persona that allows for them to seem 'holy', when in fact, they're imposters, and even for someone like myself who despises religion, it's disrespectful and decietful to our intelligence, much like other television shows of, though different, equal exaggeration and illusion.
That is all.
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4 comments:
I agree with the fact that many televised evangelists seem super- powered, and some may do it for money, but at the same time, Postman was being too general in this sense. Not every religious show exploits "power" from God. Many are just lessons or sermons from Pastors or Evangelists that they use to reach a larger audience, which is essentialy what is called of Christians. They are to reach a large audience, or at least it' what is shown in the Book of Acts in the Bible.
Oh yes, I'm quite sure that Christians mean to reach a larger audience.
Why else would they attempt to convert masses of aboriginal peoples who survived pleasantly without Jesus Christ for longer than Jesus Christ's devinity has been worshipped?
Wow, that seemed kind of uncalled for Robert.
The truth usually is.
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