catapult magazine

Thank you for the article on the value of television. I think tv has gotten much better as a medium in the last decade, not worse. Every once in a while I will see reruns of "Leave it to Beaver" or 80’s sitcoms and I can’t believe how bad that stuff was. In the last several years, I have been regularly edified (to use churchy language) by skits on Saturday Night Live or a particularly enlightening Sex and the City Episode. I hate it when people proudly proclaim they don’t watch tv as if it’s a badge of honor. I know there’s research on television’s dumbing down effect, but I wonder what shows these test subjects are watching? It can’t be Charlie Rose or Lost? When I watch tv it is definitely an activity, not just a passive de-braining (though at times television helps me do that). Sure, tv doesn’t give us the whole picture—we shouldn’t be getting all our news from it, for example. But there’s really good stuff there, if you know where to look.

I think what bugs me is that people who brag about not watching tv often seem to think they’re protecting themselves or their family from something—as if it closes the door to the devil. Well, if you’ve read any Thomas Merton or any of the saints, you know that the devil just as easily enters through the mind of the person who has done nothing but pray and contemplate God all day. Merton says after several years of disciplined prayer one might be tempted to start thinking "You know, I’m getting pretty good at this praying thing—look how holy I’ve become!" and then they’re back where they started, maybe even worse off because they cannot even find retreat from the devil in their own prayer life!

We are in culture. It’s a given. That’s what it means to be human. I know it’s tempting to run away from American superficiality and consumeristic capitalism run amok, to go out to the desert or India or Africa or somewhere outside of this culture—and maybe some people are made to do exactly that—but for me film, television, popular music is a mission field. And good missionaries get to know the ways and culture of the people they are called to.

What about the other insidious effect of TV? —that it lulls us into an acceptance of the way things are. TV de-radicalizes people, be they anarchists or Christians. We don’t just learn about culture from TV, we are influenced and become part of it when we watch TV shows and ads.

What do you think about choosing not to watch TV in order to keep our edge?

Yeah, taking a break from tv is fine, depending on the reason for the sabbatvical. Do you think there’s something inherent in the medium itself that makes people "lose their edge" or are you just referring to the programming choices of station managers and tv-watchers?

programming on TV is mainstream, so if you are exposing yourself to that all the time, your views will tend to become fairly mainstream, i think. not that you have to start believing what you see on TV but it’s a bit hard to maintain radical beliefs of any sort if constantly being influenced by TV. for example, it might be hard to maintain anarchist views if constantly watching commercials and programming that undermines your beliefs. The same could be said for a fundamentalist Christian who wants to maintain her anti-gay worldview. but maybe someone watching only Christian TV wouldn’t have the same problem.