This morning I was drinking coffee out of a cup that listed the Ten Commandments. As I looked at the last six I noticed that these are all broken in the average TV program of our day. There is no sense looking at the first four because those are rejected out of hand.
5. Honor your father and mother. The very heart of modern comedy is that children are wise and adults are stupid.
6. Don’t murder. Some comedies may avoid this but action shows justify all kinds of reasons for killing people.
7. Don’t commit adultery. Really? How old school. The modern standard is, “Do you love me?” Even if it is only love that lasts long enough to order another round, it is justification for violating sacred vows.
8. Don’t steal. Why not? If I can pirate software and CD’s why not take whatever I want?
9. Don’t lie. How can you have a TV program without non-stop lies? If you did not have lies you might need to develop a plot or characters. That would cut down on your audience.
10. Don’t covet. Most people would need to look that up in a dictionary, if they have one.
Maybe I am missing something. How can you expect a younger generation to grow up to be honorable and worthy when all of their examples are 0 for 10? How can you expect them to be law abiding when our culture is removing the Eternal Ten and replacing them with the Big Ten or the Top Ten?
homo unius libri
You can't, and that's the way they want it.
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed how cynicism and realism seem to run down the same paths?
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace.