Changing the Culture of Entertainment
Why do people want to be entertained? Why is enough never enough?
In observation of the last decade or two, I wonder how many ordinary people have drifted away from ordinary realities into deeper alternate places in which they wish to reside?
What used to be devastating about traumatic events, mass shootings, natural disasters, seem overwhelmingly almost boring to some.
Why?
If the opposite of boring is curiosity —why are we not more curious about our lives, they way we live them and the world around us?
I don’t pretend to bring any answers here. Though I’ll point to the pressures and pleasures of reality TV and the evolution of old tabloids.
People used to know headlines on vintage tabloids were outrageous. Entertaining for some perhaps and yes “news” for the few who found truth in them. But that has clearly changed in scope and depth. The culture of entertainment has changed.
A grain of truth could always be found in a lie, yet today the anesthesia of a general population is becoming quite alarming.
When up is down and right is wrong in a world where rich and powerful enterprises make it so, does it also alter honesty, integrity, fact, the truth of God or deity of our choosing if we so declare or desire to believe in such?
If that answer is yes, I’d challenge then the purpose of the enterprise.
This bring another question to our front door. What will become of human evolution when violence and hate is accepted as everyday norms? The general and natural outcome to that question, we know. I’m leaning into the question within a question. What is stopping us from our own self-destruction or self-realization? In the present moment do we have the power to change our perceptions while we are being fed a consistent diet of “what we should be interested in?”
What tools do we have to deprogram addictive societies from the things and beliefs we attach to? Why do we think we need extreme entertainment, extreme sports, extreme lifestyles? They are symbolic.
Maybe too, lost is the art of respect and due diligence. Lost perhaps are walks in nature and the calm conversations with a friend or a neighbor or our child that lift us up.
Lost maybe is our curiosity for the magnitude of the ocean floor or what we dream, come what may, for a fulfilling and meaningful life.
Missing while looking at the tabloid could be the art of wonder and awe for that which is greater than we are.
Still, in the final analysis, there are more like me who believe in the simplicity of kindness —in its action and optimism without motive or condescension. Yes I'm certain more of us than not, sing for the things money can’t buy.
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
Artist, Author, Activist, Poet and Singer-Songwriter Richard Silvia is founder of YesRising Ventures —Inspiring Global Thinking. He began Teach Love MultiMedia in 2021 to inspire Love, Possibility, and Inclusiveness through the ministry of words, music and art. He has self-published 7 books and CD You Will Be Loved by The Rick Eva Music Project. The author publishes a Substack newsletter called Radically Relevant. https://linktr.ee/YesRising #TeachLoveMultiMedia a #YesRising Venture.