Comments on The Rebel God: Sign of the Times

It seems to me the underlying issue is a deep sens...

2006-11-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

It seems to me the underlying issue is a deep sense of the injustice in this world. Without a real belief in an afterlife, people turn to fictional accounts of judgment and justice to ameliorate their frustration with this broken world. I think that's why revenge stories with vigilantly justice are so popular in movies and TV. The desire for justice is good and God given. It becomes perverted when a society stops relying on God's justice that occurs after this life.

The good news is that there is also a growing tren...

2006-10-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

The good news is that there is also a growing trend away from mass media (like television and radio) towards ways of viewing media where the end user chooses what they want to see/hear. Some examples are Tivo, Netflix, and ipods.

This means we don't have to watch the "lowest common denominator" mass appeal crap that the networks and radio stations dish out but can selectively choose what we will our minds with. Along the same lines we've subscribed to "The Sun" (www.thesunmagazine.org) which is a magazine that instead of telling news stories that inspire fear and shock, focuses on stories of goodness and hope in the world.

I watched the original "Survivor" only a couple of...

2006-10-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

I watched the original "Survivor" only a couple of times, but I've seen ads for plenty structured the same way from Fear Factor to Hell's Kitchen.

Do we like watching people be nasty to each other? Is Hell's Kitchen about learning to run a restaurant or about watching Gordon Ramsay have a purple-faced screaming temper tantrum with plenty of bleeped out words?

I'm not 100% sure what the message is. But it kind of goes along with the judging theme you were talking about. All these things get judged. Competition. Being the best. Being the worst. Seeing someone get told they're horrible and hopeless.

I think that the trend is back towards the Roman arena ...

I just pray that suicide doesn't become legal, because then there will be no legal reason why lethal bloodsport wouldn't become "the ultimate."

I'm short on details but think we've (collectively) lost our minds.

I dunno, I've never watched "Survivor". What do yo...

2006-10-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

I dunno, I've never watched "Survivor". What do you make of it?

I know I watched "America's Top Model" (another competitive reality show) when it came out and turned it off after Tyra told her that she had to pose nude if you want to be a model even if it went against her conscience. What kind of awful message does that send to the 12 and 13 year old girls who watch this show and idolize her? It says to them "Hey teens, if you want to be loved, then you'll have to put out". Seems that these reality shows reinforce immorality (treachery as you say) for the sake of material gain. I'd rank materialism as one of the chief sins of our country.

On a more positive "island theme" I've watched "Lost" and really appreciate the spiritual and moral themes in it: complex stories of people who act tough but really carry brokenness and flaws around that are revealed, scenes of people crying and praying together, of miracles. I'm a big fan.

So what do you make of all those "survivor" type s...

2006-10-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

So what do you make of all those "survivor" type shows where people are out to best each other (by treachery if need be)?