Lori in Rhode Island writes about weeping. What she wrote is the saddest and truest thing I've read all week. I hope you will go to her blog and read her precious words of today.
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Saturday, January 22, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
We Are Cultural Schizophrenics
We have become cultural schizophrenics. On one hand we decry the violence that occurred Saturday in Arizona. On the other hand we love "violence" as entertainment. We love it, I say! We pay big bucks to watch violence at the theaters and in our living rooms.
Our heroes punch each other, beat each other to a pulp. stab, shoot, kill and nobody gets arrested. Nobody goes to jail. No consequences.
Isn't that a bit unrealistic?
If I slap my neighbor in the face I can be charged with assault. If I slap my toddler, I can lose my kid to the system. (I'm too old for that...my toddler is in her 30s, but you get the picture.)
But not in Hollywood. No, Sirree. In the movies there is no consequence to breaking someone's nose. Nor killing in the most vile way. If the killing is done by the "hero", the "hero" goes away unbothered by the consequences of his action. If the violence is done by the "bad guy", well, then the solution is that the "good guy" kills the "bad guy". And the "good guy" doesn't even come under investigation for his action!
Folks! That is not Reality!
I'm wondering...when is Hollywood going to step up to the plate and recognize the great impression they have on young, impressionable minds who are sitting in front of the TV without parental supervision.
You say, "But...the parents are supposed to supervise and explain and discuss and blah, blah, blah."
I say, "Where is the village in this scenario?" Where is our society teaching our children the ramifications of using violence against one another? Parents and teachers tell them one thing (don't hit!) and television tells them another (hitting and killing solves problems). You figure out which will have the stronger message.
We have accepted into our midst the glorification of violence. We've let Hollywood teach our children as to what is acceptable behavior towards one another. We sit passively by and say, "It's only a movie."
And, lest we be accused of that dirty word "censorship", we swallow it all...hook, line and sinker. We have a knee-jerk reaction to a false concept of "censorship". God forbid that we censor. We have a right, after all, to say/write/portray anything we want. It's in the First Amendment, right? Isn't that right?
And yet we do censor. We censor anyone who threatens the President or a Member of Congress. We censor anyone who says the word "bomb" in an airport. (Try that one and see how much freedom of speech you have.) We censor calling each other certain names. We censor the words coming out of a first-grade teacher's mouth. If that teacher uses profanity (especially repeated profanity) that teacher will be out of a job. We censor a loud filthy mouth in a family restaurant. We stop the ruckus by calling the police and charging him with disturbing the peace.
Even Mark Twain is being censored! We Do Censor!
And while we condemn children calling each other names (bullying) in the school setting, we don't dare "censor" the television programs where insults, name-calling, hitting, killing are all done in the name of "entertainment". After all, if we were to do that, we'd be limiting someone's "free speech rights", someone's "creativity".
Don't you think it odd that "censorship" has become as holy as the Holy Grail?
And isn't it odd that "morality" has become a dirty word?
Am I crazy, or has the entire society turned itself upside down?
P.S. When a bookstore refuses to sell the crummy book you wrote last week...well, that is NOT censorship. NOT!
Today's Verse is Isaiah 5:20. Click on the reference to read the verse...unless you consider the Bible worthy of censorship, that is.
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Our heroes punch each other, beat each other to a pulp. stab, shoot, kill and nobody gets arrested. Nobody goes to jail. No consequences.
Isn't that a bit unrealistic?
If I slap my neighbor in the face I can be charged with assault. If I slap my toddler, I can lose my kid to the system. (I'm too old for that...my toddler is in her 30s, but you get the picture.)
But not in Hollywood. No, Sirree. In the movies there is no consequence to breaking someone's nose. Nor killing in the most vile way. If the killing is done by the "hero", the "hero" goes away unbothered by the consequences of his action. If the violence is done by the "bad guy", well, then the solution is that the "good guy" kills the "bad guy". And the "good guy" doesn't even come under investigation for his action!
Folks! That is not Reality!
I'm wondering...when is Hollywood going to step up to the plate and recognize the great impression they have on young, impressionable minds who are sitting in front of the TV without parental supervision.
You say, "But...the parents are supposed to supervise and explain and discuss and blah, blah, blah."
I say, "Where is the village in this scenario?" Where is our society teaching our children the ramifications of using violence against one another? Parents and teachers tell them one thing (don't hit!) and television tells them another (hitting and killing solves problems). You figure out which will have the stronger message.
We have accepted into our midst the glorification of violence. We've let Hollywood teach our children as to what is acceptable behavior towards one another. We sit passively by and say, "It's only a movie."
And, lest we be accused of that dirty word "censorship", we swallow it all...hook, line and sinker. We have a knee-jerk reaction to a false concept of "censorship". God forbid that we censor. We have a right, after all, to say/write/portray anything we want. It's in the First Amendment, right? Isn't that right?
And yet we do censor. We censor anyone who threatens the President or a Member of Congress. We censor anyone who says the word "bomb" in an airport. (Try that one and see how much freedom of speech you have.) We censor calling each other certain names. We censor the words coming out of a first-grade teacher's mouth. If that teacher uses profanity (especially repeated profanity) that teacher will be out of a job. We censor a loud filthy mouth in a family restaurant. We stop the ruckus by calling the police and charging him with disturbing the peace.
Even Mark Twain is being censored! We Do Censor!
And while we condemn children calling each other names (bullying) in the school setting, we don't dare "censor" the television programs where insults, name-calling, hitting, killing are all done in the name of "entertainment". After all, if we were to do that, we'd be limiting someone's "free speech rights", someone's "creativity".
Don't you think it odd that "censorship" has become as holy as the Holy Grail?
And isn't it odd that "morality" has become a dirty word?
Am I crazy, or has the entire society turned itself upside down?
P.S. When a bookstore refuses to sell the crummy book you wrote last week...well, that is NOT censorship. NOT!
Today's Verse is Isaiah 5:20. Click on the reference to read the verse...unless you consider the Bible worthy of censorship, that is.
.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Lennie Joins the Band and the Band Becomes "Art"
Debby of "Life's Funny Like That" commented yesterday about the strangeness of "time" and how we are each, every one of us, wrapped up in time, living out our lives, connected one with another.
Time takes us forward, one step, two steps, three. There is no going backward. We can "look" back, but we can't "go" back.
Debby was kind enough to mention my new blog, "Lennie's Diary" wherein we read the sparse words of a 16-year-old (soon to be 17) boy from Wakefield, Nebraska, in the year 1898.
If you, Dear Reader, have not yet visited Lennie, please click here to read the latest in his 1898 diary and how the Wakefield Cornet Band became "art" nearly a century later.
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Time takes us forward, one step, two steps, three. There is no going backward. We can "look" back, but we can't "go" back.
Debby was kind enough to mention my new blog, "Lennie's Diary" wherein we read the sparse words of a 16-year-old (soon to be 17) boy from Wakefield, Nebraska, in the year 1898.
If you, Dear Reader, have not yet visited Lennie, please click here to read the latest in his 1898 diary and how the Wakefield Cornet Band became "art" nearly a century later.
.
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