Wednesday August 29, 2007
Television gets it wrong
I seem to be watching less and less television lately. I see little point in watching programs that upset me.
I don\’t mean the documentaries that deliberately try to be a burr under my mental saddle. Programs about AIDS in Asia or about vanishing species in the Amazon are intended to upset me. I may not agree with their viewpoint, but I\’m glad to have my comfortable preconceptions jiggled occasionally.
No, I\’m referring to what passes for drama on American television. The programs with a prevailing ideology that the solution must occur through an act of violence.
That\’s distinct from American comedy, which doesn\’t end with violence, because it\’s verbal violence all the way through. The laughs come from trading insults – or obscenities – with other characters.
I suppose that\’s a slight improvement over the days when comedy consisted of Laurel and Hardy whacking each other with 2×4\’s. Some friends watched a collection of old comedies recently; they didn\’t find them funny any more.
Stand-up comedy today often consists of scoring points against an invisible foe. Then, having mercilessly ridiculed wives, husbands, priests, or lawyers, the comedian bows and says, “Thank you very much, you\’ve been a wonderful audience” and simpers off stage.
Slices of life
These days, I intentionally watch television only on weekends, when public service channels program some of the more recent Britcoms: Heartbeat, The Royal, Doc Martin, Monarch of the Glen…
They\’re not really comedies, although they can be hysterically funny – they\’re slices of life populated by often eccentric but rarely malevolent characters.
They derive their humour, and their pathos, through the interaction of personalities. Which is also how life works.
Even the crime series – A Touch of Frost, Inspector Morse, The Last Detective – rarely resort to a final outburst of violence as a means of achieving justice. There is violence, inevitably – you can\’t have a murder investigation without at least one murder. But there isn\’t a final car chase, shoot out, or explosion that wipes out the miscreants and thus restores peace and order.
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For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to ralphmilton@woodlake.com.
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
If American television reflects the American psyche, it\’s little wonder that George Bush and his buddies resorted to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Bush, after all, had no experience of any other society or culture but his own – mainly Texas, with a brief exposure to Eastern Seaboard Ivy League – before winning a minority of the popular vote and becoming president.
What else could he do? Justice always comes about through an act of violence, doesn\’t it?
I hope not. Especially if someone happens to hold a grudge against me.
The Bible specifically restricted violence when it said, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” It meant, nothing more than what was done to you.
Jesus went far beyond that when he taught his followers to pray, “Forgive us… as we forgive those who wrong us…”
The Lord\’s Prayer does not say, “…as we destroy those who trespass against us.”
Too much on the television tube seems to invert God\’s intentions for us.
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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