Simple Things/ Lang Kenneth Haynes
Entertainment
Entertainment
The other day, I had the misfortune of watching one of the morning so-called national news shows when something quite obvious occurred
to me. No. Nobody forced me to watch it. I could have turned it off or walked away. But I didn’t. The mini-revelation was that the personalities
who delivered the news and weather thrived on the misfortune of others. Plane crashes are big news. Black boxes have become holy grails.
Starving children on other continents divert attention from people who are starving here. Michael Jackson will likely die at least one-thousand
more times this week and Farah Fawcett is next at bat. Chances are that somebody on your block died this week, and the only way you know
that it wasn’t you is that you’re reading this. Les Brown, the dynamic motivational speaker, said that “You can’t get out of life alive.” He’s right.
None of us can.
It’s like national and local disasters have all taken on the significance of video games. None of it is real. And, at the same time, of course it
is. That’s where the fascination comes in. Divorce happens to other people. That’s why we’re intrigued by television shows about a divorcing
couple and their children. We call it reality television. Virtual television. Sure it is. It’s real alright. Many of the people who watch the show are
divorced but the channel changer provides the necessary buffer so that we don’t have to look at ourselves. War footage is popular. It’s a lot
easier to question or justify the violent motives of groups of people or nations than it is to delve into the violence we harbor in our own hearts
or to ask why we kicked the dog, waved an angry finger at a fellow motorist or punched a husband, wife or child in the mouth. The morning
national news anchors have the audacity to offer their prayers and condolences to people who are grieving whatever calamity. My response is
that they can take their prayers and condolences and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. There, I said it. I know. It’s a quasi-violent
response, but I feel better. Not entertained, but better.
We’ve become a nation of back seat drivers. We live life through other people and prefer vicarious experiences to actual ones. It’s safer.
Like playgrounds where it’s virtually (there’s that word again) impossible to get hurt. Our minds, butts and spirits are padded. We are virtual
people living in the shadows of twisted realities that bombard us from all directions via wireless and wired devices. And when the plugs are
pulled or a real thunder storm cuts off the power we continue to go about business as usual. We continue to seek ways to fill our needs and
being entertained comes before eating and drinking. I’m being a little overdramatic, but not much. How did you react the last time your cable or
satellite dish failed to provide entertainment on the 300 channels you flip through nightly?
One definition of ‘entertainment’ given in the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary Second Edition reads, “Something affording
pleasure, diversion or amusement. . .” We are amused by tragedies because we see the victims as other than ourselves. We blow people up in
video games and it’s okay because it’s fun and not real. We laugh at the discomfort and hard times that others experience, because it’s too hard
to look at the things that make us uncomfortable and we convince ourselves that we are above hard times even after we’ve drawn our last
unemployment check and we’ve punched two more holes in our belts.
We want to be entertained. We need to be entertained. Entertainment tonight. Entertainment in the afternoon. Enter- tainment in the morning.
Entertainment in the evening. Entertainment posing as news. Hollow words passing as condolences. Mock prayers offered to false gods. Blow
up the village. It’s only a game. Oh. It was live footage. The real deal. No matter. As long as we’re entertained. Don’t be too sad about your
favorite reality show being taken off the air. Another mindless show will take its place and your addiction to it is pre-guaranteed. The controllers
of the airwaves and brainwaves will do everything in their power to ensure that you don’t think. Like being pre-approved for credit cards. The
only requirement to qualify is that you breathe for as long as it takes to sign on the dotted line. Don’t read the fine print, it will only give you a
headache. Not a virtual headache, but a real one. Can’t have that. Don’t want to really feel anything. That would not be entertaining or amusing
and certainly not a diversion.
The question is, how will we react to our neighbors? Will we regard them as games? As virtual entities with virtual problems? How will we
relate to our children, wives, husbands, significant others and relatives? Do we risk the danger of not realizing that we are all related in this
virtual process? Of course, good comedy and good drama and good entertainment, in general, are based on the ability to touch our lives. To
resonate at some level. But not too close or entertainment enters the realm of reality which essentially renders it non-entertainment. There is an
interesting and delicate balance to achieve. Entertainment must touch us at home while at the same time not being too close to home. Maybe
balance is what life is all about. Just enough but not too much. Not too much sugar. Not too much meat. Not too much of anything in any form.
Maybe we eliminate the consumption of given things (meat or sugar as examples) in a conscious or unconscious attempt to create some sort of
balance in some other arena. In any event, it’s up to each individual to determine the lines that are not to be crossed. The line that separates
funny from downright insensitive and insulting. The line that is drawn between what is entertaining and virtual versus the things that are directly
parts of our lives. Not exaggerated caricatures but reasonable facsimiles of what our lives look like.
It is fine and wonderful to be entertained sometimes. We all need a break from time to time. Who wants to be serious twenty-four hours a
day? Life is too short to obsess about the perceived rightness of everything. It is important and even required that we maintain the ability to
laugh at ourselves and there are times when the distance provided by entertainment is necessary for us to see ourselves. But let’s call
entertainment what it is when we turn on the tube, unfold a newspaper or cruise the Internet. Let’s not become so lazy and so divorced and
virtual that we fail to recognize entertainment in the shows that purport to give us the news. Let’s make conscious choices about the things that
are not and should not be virtual. The things that affect us directly. The causes that we must fight in our own ways. No one will wage these
battles for us. No matter how many channels we surf, mice we click or radio waves we ingest.
to me. No. Nobody forced me to watch it. I could have turned it off or walked away. But I didn’t. The mini-revelation was that the personalities
who delivered the news and weather thrived on the misfortune of others. Plane crashes are big news. Black boxes have become holy grails.
Starving children on other continents divert attention from people who are starving here. Michael Jackson will likely die at least one-thousand
more times this week and Farah Fawcett is next at bat. Chances are that somebody on your block died this week, and the only way you know
that it wasn’t you is that you’re reading this. Les Brown, the dynamic motivational speaker, said that “You can’t get out of life alive.” He’s right.
None of us can.
It’s like national and local disasters have all taken on the significance of video games. None of it is real. And, at the same time, of course it
is. That’s where the fascination comes in. Divorce happens to other people. That’s why we’re intrigued by television shows about a divorcing
couple and their children. We call it reality television. Virtual television. Sure it is. It’s real alright. Many of the people who watch the show are
divorced but the channel changer provides the necessary buffer so that we don’t have to look at ourselves. War footage is popular. It’s a lot
easier to question or justify the violent motives of groups of people or nations than it is to delve into the violence we harbor in our own hearts
or to ask why we kicked the dog, waved an angry finger at a fellow motorist or punched a husband, wife or child in the mouth. The morning
national news anchors have the audacity to offer their prayers and condolences to people who are grieving whatever calamity. My response is
that they can take their prayers and condolences and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. There, I said it. I know. It’s a quasi-violent
response, but I feel better. Not entertained, but better.
We’ve become a nation of back seat drivers. We live life through other people and prefer vicarious experiences to actual ones. It’s safer.
Like playgrounds where it’s virtually (there’s that word again) impossible to get hurt. Our minds, butts and spirits are padded. We are virtual
people living in the shadows of twisted realities that bombard us from all directions via wireless and wired devices. And when the plugs are
pulled or a real thunder storm cuts off the power we continue to go about business as usual. We continue to seek ways to fill our needs and
being entertained comes before eating and drinking. I’m being a little overdramatic, but not much. How did you react the last time your cable or
satellite dish failed to provide entertainment on the 300 channels you flip through nightly?
One definition of ‘entertainment’ given in the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary Second Edition reads, “Something affording
pleasure, diversion or amusement. . .” We are amused by tragedies because we see the victims as other than ourselves. We blow people up in
video games and it’s okay because it’s fun and not real. We laugh at the discomfort and hard times that others experience, because it’s too hard
to look at the things that make us uncomfortable and we convince ourselves that we are above hard times even after we’ve drawn our last
unemployment check and we’ve punched two more holes in our belts.
We want to be entertained. We need to be entertained. Entertainment tonight. Entertainment in the afternoon. Enter- tainment in the morning.
Entertainment in the evening. Entertainment posing as news. Hollow words passing as condolences. Mock prayers offered to false gods. Blow
up the village. It’s only a game. Oh. It was live footage. The real deal. No matter. As long as we’re entertained. Don’t be too sad about your
favorite reality show being taken off the air. Another mindless show will take its place and your addiction to it is pre-guaranteed. The controllers
of the airwaves and brainwaves will do everything in their power to ensure that you don’t think. Like being pre-approved for credit cards. The
only requirement to qualify is that you breathe for as long as it takes to sign on the dotted line. Don’t read the fine print, it will only give you a
headache. Not a virtual headache, but a real one. Can’t have that. Don’t want to really feel anything. That would not be entertaining or amusing
and certainly not a diversion.
The question is, how will we react to our neighbors? Will we regard them as games? As virtual entities with virtual problems? How will we
relate to our children, wives, husbands, significant others and relatives? Do we risk the danger of not realizing that we are all related in this
virtual process? Of course, good comedy and good drama and good entertainment, in general, are based on the ability to touch our lives. To
resonate at some level. But not too close or entertainment enters the realm of reality which essentially renders it non-entertainment. There is an
interesting and delicate balance to achieve. Entertainment must touch us at home while at the same time not being too close to home. Maybe
balance is what life is all about. Just enough but not too much. Not too much sugar. Not too much meat. Not too much of anything in any form.
Maybe we eliminate the consumption of given things (meat or sugar as examples) in a conscious or unconscious attempt to create some sort of
balance in some other arena. In any event, it’s up to each individual to determine the lines that are not to be crossed. The line that separates
funny from downright insensitive and insulting. The line that is drawn between what is entertaining and virtual versus the things that are directly
parts of our lives. Not exaggerated caricatures but reasonable facsimiles of what our lives look like.
It is fine and wonderful to be entertained sometimes. We all need a break from time to time. Who wants to be serious twenty-four hours a
day? Life is too short to obsess about the perceived rightness of everything. It is important and even required that we maintain the ability to
laugh at ourselves and there are times when the distance provided by entertainment is necessary for us to see ourselves. But let’s call
entertainment what it is when we turn on the tube, unfold a newspaper or cruise the Internet. Let’s not become so lazy and so divorced and
virtual that we fail to recognize entertainment in the shows that purport to give us the news. Let’s make conscious choices about the things that
are not and should not be virtual. The things that affect us directly. The causes that we must fight in our own ways. No one will wage these
battles for us. No matter how many channels we surf, mice we click or radio waves we ingest.
