Popular Culture

Perhaps it is only because I am getting older, although I hope it is because I am slowly developing better taste. But I find that most of the popular culture, all the things that I'm supposed to become all excited over, is often a terrible bore and potentially a terrific waste of time.

Super Bowls? March Madness? They're simply overblown sports showcases. And though I do have my favorite sports which I follow perhaps too closely and with an emotional involvement which can indeed border on the ridiculous, I can no longer ignore the feeling that it's all just so much hype. My old grandfather used to say, "So let him drop the ball, what does it really matter?" He makes a valid point.

American Idol? Dancing With the Stars? Ho-hum. I have nothing against them, to be sure, but I don't see where I should particularly care about them either. The only well known TV show that I watch is Lost, and that one's losing me too. It's getting awfully convoluted, and I fear it will end up just like the only other (fairly) recent series (Babylon 5, if you care to know) in which I invested my time only to be sorely disappointed in its conclusion.

The next big blockbuster film? All special effects at the expense of the story. At that, it likely as not will be about some popular fictional character instead of dealing with issues and themes which may enlighten us.

I think that part of it is we don't know how to entertain, or be entertained, anymore. Where are the good television shows and movies which strive only to tell a good story rather than dwell like a high school sophomore over sexual innuendo? Even decent shows like CSI seem to overflow with crimes tied into sex. Further, why does our entertainment feel that it has to go for the spectacular or highly unusual? Why can't it be straightforward rather than over the top or avant garde?

Yet it's more than that: why can't we appeal to the soul of human nature better than we do? At the very least, why can't we have comedies which focus on the comedy rather than the juvenile? Why can't even our merest diversions be, I will say it, wholesome good fun?

Maybe it is like C. S. Lewis says: we feel (or should feel) a little sheepish at having too much fun here, for the serious business of this world is to make ourselves better people. Maybe we ought to feel that such diversions are a little bit of a nuisance which interfere with that great objective.

Again, I don't mean to say that all current forms of entertainment are bad or ought to be tossed. Nor do I mean that mindless entertainment is entirely bad for us. Go on and make the next Iron Man and watch stars dance and root for you favorite team. Some of that may well be wholesome enough, to be fair. But remember that it could be better, and will be if you desire. Remember as well to put it in the proper perspective: it is ultimately trivial and only meant to give our minds and bodies a break.