Popcultured by Turner Steve;

Author:Turner, Steve;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830895489
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2013-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

Extravagant Expectations

Two pertinent questions are whether popular culture has become so pervasive that it allows little time for reflection, and whether we are embarked on an increasingly fruitless search for ever-bigger thrills. The comedian Russell Brand comments, “I’ve noticed from my participation in popular culture that it functions to prevent synaptic connections happening in our minds so we can’t think properly.”3 Daniel Boorstin said that we suffer from extravagant expectations. “We expect too much of the world,” he wrote in The Image. “Our expectations are extravagant in the precise dictionary sense of the word—‘going beyond the limits of reason or moderation.’ They are excessive.”4

One of the great values of popular culture is that it can help “take our minds off things.” We need that sort of relief. Any survey carried out to discover what makes a happy marriage will find that “humor” rates highly. Why so? What have wisecracks, puns and leg-pulls got to do with marital harmony? The answer is that humor creates a buffer. If marriages consisted only of intense discussions about things that “really matter,” it would be like two bones engaging each other without the benefit of cartilage. Humor relaxes the facial muscles, lightens the mood, dispels anger and neutralizes conflict. It provides space.

In a similar way what we sometimes call “the daily grind” is brightened by entertainment. Seeing a film won’t cure depression but it will give temporary relief and can help put things into perspective. Music won’t reduce the workload but it can make it more enjoyable. There are suggestions in the Bible that music was played during the construction of buildings (2 Chron 34:12-13) and that songs were sung in the vineyards (Is 16:10). When Saul suffered anxiety his first thought was “to search for someone who can play the lyre” (1 Sam 16:16). This was how David first came into Saul’s life. David took his harp and played. “Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him” (1 Sam 16:23).

But when entertainment is used either to evade the questions and problems of life or becomes the central purpose of life, then it is occupying a position for which it was never intended. For many people the reality of life as described by God is regarded as fantasy, and the fantasies of life as concocted by the entertainment industry are regarded as reality. The writer of Ecclesiastes was a wise man who concluded that life was empty, repetitive, fruitless, boring and without meaning. Having exhausted the possibilities held out by reason and knowledge, he sought consolation in the realm of experiences. If he couldn’t get answers to questions, maybe he could at least shield himself from the logic of his conclusions. He tried madness, folly, pleasure, intoxication, food, beauty, possessions, music, sex and consumerism, but they only led him back to his original conclusion:

When I surveyed all that my hands had done

and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;

nothing was gained under the sun.

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