In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman asserts that America will not be destroyed from without but from within. He considers George Orwell’s book, 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World. Postman wrote, “Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think….In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared what we love will ruin us.”1
It wasn’t but just a few short weeks ago that I witnessed two young ladies texting on their cell phones. I asked them if they were texting each other as opposed to just speaking out loud. “No, we’re texting our other friends.” Interestingly enough, one of them actually told me about one of their teachers at their high school that actually writes his notes on the marker board in “text language.” It is a totally different language than what you are reading right now in this article.
I witnessed another phenomenon. The phenomenon of “gaming” is what I mean. This idea that our children need Xboxes and iPads and Droids and Wiis is beyond anything that I ever saw as a kid. They have all their toys and games that they can carry in their pockets. Do you remember the days when all you had to play with was a stick and an empty bottle? I do! My mother told us over and over again that arcade games were just a waste of money. Now you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home if you have game boxes and other things. Kids are getting fat because they don’t exercise enough due to sitting and playing games on their TVs in their bedrooms.
Then there’s the sporting events. That’s right! You read me correctly! People are willing to spend hundreds of dollars just to go and watch a bunch of sweaty, smelly men throwing a “pigskin” around. Then there’s baseball. We know of people who say they can’t sit in a church service for one hour but they can sit on metal seats at a stadium for a good solid nine innings or even more if it goes into overtime. And what about Nascar? Does anybody realize that Nascar is a bunch of people driving in a big circle? Granted they’re driving 200+ miles per hour, but it’s still a big circle! What about hockey? Well, because it’s my favorite sport there’s nothing wrong with spending a bunch of money and time to watch a game! (I hope you understand that I am joking about hockey!)
Let’s face it, friends, we truly are amusing ourselves to death. Whether it’s watching TV, movies, playing games, being involved in sports or anything else, we are a society that seems to love what we have and do rather than keeping our priorities straight.
Read what the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Our ruin is that we love other things rather than loving God. People are falling apart because we don’t love them as we love ourselves. The society in which we live is becoming more and more dangerous as we love other things rather than loving God and people.
So what can we do about it? First, we can get those things that distract us from the Lord out of our lives. It doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun or be amused at times, it just means that we are ridding ourselves of distraction. Second, we can encourage each other to love and good works (cf. Hebrews 10:24-25). Let’s stop amusing ourselves to death and let’s start loving the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind.
1 Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Viking, 1985, vii-viii.
