Amusing ourselves to death

By: American Decency Staff

With grandchildren living with us (aged 2 and 5), we are so freshly reminded of the high importance of basic things such as:  tenderness, firmness, unconditional love, consistency, patience (lots of it), discipline, more consistency, godliness in talk, in action and in example. With all the demands upon parents, I can also again see how easy it is to just allow our children to sit in front of a television, a DVD player, a computer.  In watching what happens when even a little bit of that tendency comes into play, I am reminded afresh that this is not the best for our kids. Years ago author Frank Peretti gave a message at a large Gaither Gathering in Indiana that he entitled “Clear Thinking in an age that doesn’t.â€Â On occasion I go back and listen to that insightful prophetic message.  Some of the themes that he unfolded were that we were moving away from being a word -centered people to a visual-centered people.  That we were moving away from being readers and thinkers to a people who were increasingly becoming amusement dependent and superficial, more easily influenced by big media persuasion. Have you ever read the classic book by Neil Postman entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death?â€ÂÂ  Peretti used Postman’s book to document his concern quoting Postman. Postman wrote about the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debates where people would come from miles around and sit attentively often times at three hour debates.  Postman contrasted that with our sound byte age where the media gives us 30 second news clips in propaganda style that cheats us of a well-rounded presentation of the facts and the arguments regarding important news.  We don’t realize that we are being spoon fed, even manipulated by the media managers of our age. Peretti uses information like this (above) to try to help us to see that as we move away from reading aloud to our kids and replace it with hours of children’s cartoons, movies (even hours of family films),  we are greasing the skids for them to be marked by short attention spans, superficiality, amusement dependency and with a deterioration in their ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil, truth from a lie, holiness from the profane. For those who haven’t allowed themselves to be inundated by visual superficiality and garbage, they still have the capability of knowing the difference between the holy and the profane.  They have a capability of having a righteous indignation when they see or hear something that is disgusting. ——————————————————————————————————————— Your support is important to our ability to make a difference. Donate online at: https://secure4.afo.net/ada/donate.php American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org http://www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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