I don't know quite how to put this, but it is an objection on my part to what I saw last night on television, and before you tell me, "Well, you can always turn it off," I will tell you that I did. But I have thought today about it, and so I write.
I sat down in the late evening, turned around the channels and stopped when I saw a gathering at what appeared to be a Thanksgiving dinner. It soon became clear that these people were not family, perhaps friends, perhaps professional colleagues and other guests at Candice Bergen's table. I don't know her character's name. The people were bickering and seemed to be far from thankful for anything, but--just as I was about to change the channel--someone said something about praying or offering thanks, so I stayed.
There was more bickering about who offered to pray because that person--I don't know his name either--supposedly doesn't believe in God. And what followed was a series of jokes, crude remarks, ridicule and ridiculous comments about God and Jesus Christ. And Allah.
Oh yes, I know that many programs on television have as their premise and focus matters that I find objectionable. Frankly, I am not easily shocked. But this, the things they said, the small-mindedness and flagrant disregard (of the writers? the actors? the producers?) of matters some hold a reverence for, this I found shocking.
Those who surrounded the table are, we are supposed to believe, highly intelligent people. Some in our society may think they--in person and in the person of the characters they portray--speak for us, because they are professional and bright and wealthy and ever in the public eye.
But they do not speak for me. And I do object to the level of entertainment to which network television has fallen. No, I think it is less a fall than a willful plunge down. Way down. And I wonder if the actors in this show are proud of the work they do.
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