June 21st, 2004
 

“The public is even more fond of entertainment than it is of information.” Based on this observation newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst initiated a subtle shift towards entertainment and away from fact in the way he reported the news . The shift is affecting the way we live and perceive our lives.

The essential idea of entertainment is diversion and we are the land of diverted selves. So profound is this development, Neil Gabler argues in “Life: The Movie,” that “it is not any ‘ism' but entertainment that is arguably the most pervasive, powerful, and ineluctable force of our time — a force so overwhelming that it has finally metastasized into life.” In his review of the book Robert Sibley observes, “Gabler argues that through the unintended alchemy of technology, pop culture, and collective psychology, "entertainment" has become our most essential "value" and, thus, our effective reality.”

So we should not be surprised to see Presidential candidate John Kerry frustrated that his Kennedyesque photo-ops at Nantucket were thwarted. “Arriving late Saturday morning, his planned bicycle ride around the island was aborted after he discovered a bubble on his back tire. And on Sunday morning, he sped out to a remote beach in his stepson's powerboat in hopes of kite-surfing, a new extreme sport, only to return home after half an hour without even zipping up his wetsuit.” “the wind died,” muttered Kerry.

If Michael Moore has his way he will write the ending for George Bush’s political life in his new unabashed polemic, Fahrenheit 911.” Morphing fantasy and reality, at least one psychologist is touting the “healing” power of Harry Potter and other parents are concluding that the fantasy card game, Magic The Gathering is a productive outlet.

Americans entertainment appetite turned the warning of a 17-year plague of cicada’s into an unfulfilling amusement event, which when it failed to materialized left people feeling dejected, as if they “missed the show.”

Tolkien talked about “eucatastrophe” as the mythic expectations for a happy ending, something filmmaker Michael Haneke refused to do in his new film “Time of the Wolf.” “Most disaster films rely on dazzling special effects — then the hero arrives to put things in order. In the end, you leave feeling reassured about the state of the world. I wanted to do just the opposite.” Bill Clinton may have accomplished the opposite of what he hoped in My Life, a book described by one NYT reviewer as not unlike the Clinton presidency characterized by a “lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration. “

Parents should not be reassured by the newest form of “dirty dancing,” a social development of great importance according to one sociologist, and interpreted as a “war” between the young man and female protagonist by a young woman engaged in the battle.

You can see a thread running through what seems like a random sampling of stories: a society of bored humans, amusing ourselves to death, confusing reality and fantasy, wanting a happy outcome and fearing we will experience just the opposite

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, “these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have.” (For Now).

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