Things have been a little quiet since Covid hit. Cindy and I have been watching more TV than is typical. We typically watch news and games shows just before dinner then Op-Ed shows and finally dramas for a few hours.
Last night, the Op-Ed show amounted to an angry talking head who was trying to get me mad at some other angry talking head on “the enemy network”. This was followed by another angry talking head trying to get me mad at politicians in the “enemy party”.
We finally abandoned that network and tuned in a Netflix series that we have been following. Some of them, like “Anne, with an E” have been excellent. The show last night spent its time showing a politician as he struggled over abandoning his principles for political expediency………he does. This was interspersed with multiple gratuitous sexual encounters of every imaginable type…….none of which involved a husband and wife and none of which had anything to do with the plot line of the show.
And this is what TV has become. Ozzie and Harriett are long gone. Today the theme menu is limited to: political manipulation, murder, sex, and “flexible, tolerant, morals” which is to say……no morals at all.
Is it any wonder that our society is decaying? I know…….. you’ve heard all of this before. So have I.
What do do?
We are consumers. The TV pays its way by selling ads. We watch the ads and buy the products. The networks…….every last one of them……..give us either what we want or what they want us to want. And don’t kid yourself, they are extremely skilled at making us want what they want us to want. But, in the final analysis, we are responsible. We are directly responsible for the media that we consume. But, we are indirectly responsible for the rest of it……. the manipulation, sex, murder, gratuitous violence………all of it. If we will watch trash, they will broadcast trash.
So……….what if we stop?
What if we pull the plug on the TV……the internet too. What if, instead, we pull out a good book, sit down with our family and read. Two things happen. The first is immediate and highly effective. We eliminate a source of intellectual poison from our lives. By poison, I mean something that you consume that harms you. The second is much slower and requires a lot of consumers pulling the plug. Ultimately, the networks and the advertisers that support them will change…….maybe just a little bit.
I’m not naive enough to believe that millions of Americans will drag their TV and their laptop out to the curb. But, begining today, I hope that you will join me in asking a simple question when you tune in a show or visit a web site.
“Is this product that I am about to consume……. poison?”
My wife and I own a small farm in Kentucky. I go out there to hunt and fish…….and to just get away. This week I went deer hunting. I was surprised to see about a dozen black buggies within a mile of our farm. An Amish community has been buying up farms and has moved into the neighborhood.
I used to think of the Amish as a quaint anachronism. But, now I’m beginning to understand. The Amish are not totally against technology. But, they are against being connected to the grid, the network. They choose to isolate themselves from the social currents that drive our society……..some would say the social currents that degrade our society. They refuse to consume the poison.
I used to think that they were wrong and modern society was right. After last night………I’m not so sure.
So, I am going to spend a be lot more time with a book and a lot less time with a video screen.
And, I think I’ll make an effort to get to know my new Amish neighbors.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Paul, NIV
After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
James, NIV