Monday, August 11, 2008
Thou shall not worship the media
As I was reading Amusing Ourselves to Death I was rather interested in something Postman said in the very first chapter. A few pages into the chapter he questions why the God of the Israelites would give the Second Commandment and in doing so restrict the way His people worship. God states in the Commandments that He is Lord and there shall be no other god before Him, then He goes onto explaining that we are to refrain from idolizing anything but Himself. I, a Catholic, have never given this much thought but it is clear to see that God knew the media would affect us. What we spend most of our time doing defines us completely. If I spend most of my days watching TV it’s very possible that my actions and words would begin to merge together with the shows I watch. Too many TV shows, video games, cell phones, and/or internet becomes a god, we spend so much time before them it becomes a sanctuary to us. God also knew that the media would be harmful by the messages it promoted; the media promotes premarital sex, violence, drugs, alcohol, etc all for which God is against. With the media promoting these things, these too become a god to many. As Neil Postman says, perhaps God truly wanted a culture of quality.
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2 comments:
Though I am not an avid believer in any sort of "God concept", or even religion for that matter, I support the idea that the human psyche probably showcases a pre-existing need for comfort, or worship of a higher power.
Sadly [or however you find it], society has in many ways replaced God with media. Why? Because media does all that the "Lord" can provide. Comfort, parables, and in many cases, an overall guide to how you should conduct yourself.
While God remains the prominent higher power, I do say that ruling out a media-religion-takeover isn't farfetched in any manner.
It's interesting to take notice of the fact that God may have known ahead of time about our culture descending into a Huxleyan culture.
He's smart to lay a rule of worshiping no one other than him because our culture is going down the path of addiction. Addiction to media, drugs, alcohol, and more.
I also want to point out how insane it was that Aldous Huxley was so aware of what would happen to our culture. Some people just really have a nack for seeing things as they are and through their entertaining displays.
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