Let me just say that I consider good writing to be writing that will provoke a response from the reader - one way or the other. Writing that would cause you to question your own values and prod at some uncomfortable truths that may be lurking therein... Like good art. That's the writing I like and aim to achieve.
We are all different so I don't see any value in trying to make you believe what i do, I'll just present what I believe and if someone agrees then all the better.
(NB for us Christians! That is what Jesus asked us to do - be WITNESSES to the truth he told and make 'disciples' - people wanting to learn for themselves - not converts!)
In response to a comment I had on a previous blog about TV... This is probably a good definition of what good telly should do too!
However the danger I was/am trying to point out in that entry is that we do not approach telly with an evaluating mind - we turn it on because we are tired from a busy day and don't want to have to think and evaluate any more tonight thank-you Deirdre. We sit back and let someone else inform our morals and fill our mind because we can't be bothered to discern, can't be bothered to switch it off... or there just isn't anything on that we do want to fill our minds with.
Let me ask a slightly turgid (but amicable) rhetorical question of you; do you often go into a bookstore of very varied quality - or music shop - walk to an attractive looking aisle, and then read a dozen books completely at random, beginning to end, without much question of author, content, quality or aim? Leaving no gap between reading those books to weigh up or be stretched by the content but leaving behind with very little discussion or thought?
Or do you have conversations with people and not evaluate the wisdom, accuracy or value of what they are telling you - just let it wash over you - affect you - and then forget about it in time for the next conversation?
Oh. OK.
Do you read advertising boards and believe every word of it - or worse not even think about it but go straight out to purchase...?
Yeh alright, alright!
So, me too... I am guilty of a lack of discernment in many areas. But I question my lack of discernment whenever possible and aim that whatever mine eyes rest on is in someway of positive value to me, or it gets stopped at the gates.
This is a simple skill to be employed throughout life. When watching telly it is of utmost import. But also elsewhere. If you haven't realised this yet - beware of the 'internet 2.0' - the idea that the internet has changed in nature from being a 'few' sites communicating fairly categorically to the masses - to its new form where 'the masses' are posting whatever they feel like to each other. (like me). The danger is that we still give credibility to every website we go on, believing it to have some kind of wisdom or authority by virtue only of being published on the web. Well I suppose this is all very post-modern and lovely - 'let everyone have their say - its all of value.'
No. not really. We MUST become more discerning. Truth exists.
Rant over.
Anyway, what did people do to relax and unwind before telly? It must be possible to relax and unwind without watching stuff that offends and degrades you intelligence.
There's no excuse - when you want to just chill and relax - watch something you know. Watch something worth watching. Or go and read a book. Or hunt a boar.
Go hunt a boar
Read (Words)
3 comments:
I'm going to carry on commenting annonymously if I may, I'm enjoying the mystery of it.
Let's start with this line:
"We sit back and let someone else inform our morals and fill our mind..." Hmmm. I think you underestimate your readership, and maybe even yourself. Such a statement assumes an extreme level of impressionability. As intelligent, educated people, even when we are passively and 'indiscriminately' watching TV we are making subconscious judgements and evaluations. We are not accepting and taking onboard everything we hear; we are agreeing and disagreeing with things as we would if we were in discussion over them. That is our nature.
You carry on, assuming somehow that when we read/talk/see adverts etc we are making these evaluations and judgments, whereas somehow the TV magically switches off this capacity and we are shaped and influenced by everything that TV tells us.
Do I only ever read books that edify/educate me? No definitely not. I do read those kinds of books but sometimes I read just to be entertained. And sometimes it's trash that I'm reading, but because my intelligent, discerning mind is active I am being entertained but not necessarily influenced. The same goes for TV. Never underestimate the value of being mindlessly entertained, in our hectic lives I firmly believe that it has an important role for our wellbeing. And certainly don't dismiss it because you're afraid of it "informing your morals and filling your mind"
I think if you're talking about children then everything you say carries more weight but I'm assuming your readership is not mainly children. Also I totally agree with your point about stuff you read on the web. There's a lot of rubbish out there ;-)
Well, I don't want to have to try and qualify every statement i make and justify all possibilities and possible interpretations of what i write, because that's just boring. I'm a bit sick of conversations where you all know how a statement might be mis-interpreted of the possible occassions where it may not be true but you have to add disclaimers and qualify it all or the other person will pick you up on it even though they know you are aware of it.
Anyway, on the other hand you are causing me to be that extra bit more considered about what i write and that's a valuable thing. Thanks Andrew you are good at doing that generally.
What I guess I'm saying is that yes, I understand recreational/relaxational time is possibly more important than ever, but actually if we are to be different to the norm, if we are to more fully realise our potential as God-made human beings we should be more aware of how external factors affect and mould us. I give more weight than you to the power of watching TV, not just in kids, because I believe that the things we fill our mind with affects who we become. In fact someone said just that but I'm not sure who... "The things we think about become the things we say, the things we say become the things we do, the things we do become our character, and our character becomes our destiny." I won't bother qualifying or disclaiming the weaknesses of that quote but speaking generally i think it is very true. Yes of course, on the whole we are intelligent people who use discernment when we watch and read stuff, but many don't use a whole lot of it, and most of us don't use it quite enough. I know I'm totally at risk, well, guilty, of watching stuff withouit thinking about it too much, but it just seems too dangerous to switch off and let whatever in your head - unless you don't mind ending up person you hadn't hoped about becoming. I have a fairly clear picture about the ideal person I'd like to grow towards becoming and it doesn't really involve watering down intentional growth as a person by filling mind with quantities of stuff that has different standards, morals and ideals.
I guess at the end of the day I have admiration for the spirit of what you're saying, while not necessarily agreeing with all of the substance. But that's all good. I hope you don't think I was deliberately misinterpreting what you said to make you sound bad or to support my point. That certainly wasn't my intention.
It's much easier to be me (whoever I am - maybe not who you think) challenging what you've put out there, than you putting it out there. So I applaud you for getting your ideas out there and allowing them to be hacked at by idiots like me. I'm just exercising my underused debating muscles really.
So keep writing, and I may occasionally throw in my 2 pennies worth.
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