A Balanced View of Entertainment
“ALL work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” That statement is so familiar today that it is easy to forget just how true it is. As a matter of fact, “all work and no play” may do considerably worse things to Jack than make him dull. It can make him a workaholic, a compulsive worker to the exclusion of all else.
Consider, for instance, a problem that has arisen in Japan, a country known for its stringent work ethic. Employees are often expected to work overtime every night and on weekends. Maclean’s, a Canadian newsmagazine, noted that the average Japanese worker logs 2,088 hours on the job per year, compared with 1,654 for the average Canadian worker. Yet, the magazine noted: “Japanese firms had to contend with a different problem: employees who suffered karoshi, or death from overwork. Newspapers reported cases of men in their 40s who suffered heart attacks or strokes after working 100 days without a day off.” The Japanese ministry of labor even had to launch an advertising campaign, replete with catchy jingles, to urge people to take weekends off and relax. What a contrast to some Western countries, where people have to be coaxed to work a full week!
The Benefits of Play
Fittingly, though, experts generally see workaholism as a sickness, not a virtue. Jack needs to play—and not just when he is a boy; adults as well as children have this same need. Why? What do people get out of leisure, or play? One textbook on the subject made a list: “Self-expression, companionship, integration of mind and body or wholeness, physical health, a needed contrast or rhythm in the work-constrained schedule, rest and relaxation, a chance to try something new and to meet new people, to build relationships, to consolidate the family, to get in touch with nature, . . . and to just feel good without analyzing why. All these are among the benefits people find in their leisure.”
Sociologists have devoted many books to the subject of leisure and play, and they agree that leisure is essential both to the individual and to society. Surely, though, no one understands human nature better than mankind’s Creator. How does he feel about this subject?
Contrary to what some seem to think, the Bible is not against fun and recreation. It tells us that Jehovah is a happy God and that he expects his servants to be happy as well. (Psalm 144:15b; 1 Timothy 1:11) At Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, we learn that there is “an appointed time . . . to laugh” and “a time to skip about.” The Hebrew word for “laugh” here is related to words that signify “play.” The same book of the Bible tells us that “with a man there is nothing better than that he should eat and indeed drink and cause his soul to see good because of his hard work.”—Ecclesiastes 2:24.
Today, one of the more popular ways to enjoy leisure time is to be entertained, to sit back and enjoy a display of the talents of others. That is not entirely new either. The Bible shows that for millenniums people have found pleasure in watching others dance, sing, play musical instruments, or compete in sports.
As a form of recreation, entertainment can do us a world of good. Who does not find some delight in the feats of a skilled athlete, the fluid grace of a ballerina, the edge-of-the-seat suspense of a good, wholesome adventure movie, or the lilting melody that lingers in the mind long after the music stops? And no doubt most of us have enjoyed relaxing with a good book, turning the pages ever faster as we became engrossed in a story well told.
Such entertainment may relax us, and more. It may also stimulate us, uplift us, touch our heart, make us laugh—and even enlighten us. Literature, for instance, can teach us quite a bit about human nature. The works of Shakespeare are a clear example of that.
The Dangers of Entertainment
To have a balanced view of today’s entertainment, though, we must acknowledge its dangers as well as its benefits. Much is said on the corrupting influence of entertainment, but in general the dangers can be divided into two broad categories: quantity and quality, the sheer amount of entertainment available and its content. Let us first consider quality.
We live in dark times, what the Bible calls “critical times hard to deal with.” (2 Timothy 3:1) Not surprisingly, today’s entertainment reflects our era, often in its ugliest aspects. Sadistic violence, blatant immorality, and the lowest of human reactions—such as racism—all find their way into popular entertainment, contaminating it to varying degrees. On the extreme end of the spectrum, what should be entertainment is little more than pornography and filth. Consider some examples.
Movies: At Hollywood’s highest honors, the Oscars, three of the men nominated in the “best actor” category this year had played psychopathic killers, all of whom kill very explicitly on screen. Reportedly one character bites a chunk out of a woman’s face as he rapes her. Financially, one of the year’s biggest hits was a movie called Basic Instinct. Judging by the reviews, this title puts it mildly. The film opens with an explicit sex scene during which the woman stabs her tied-up lover repeatedly with an ice pick, spattering gore all over herself.
Music: Both rap and heavy metal music have recently come under increasing fire for similar content problems. Songs that glorify the sexual degradation and abuse of women, violence and hatred toward various races and policemen, and even Satanism have all been found among rap and heavy metal records. In some areas, records with such explicit material must carry warning labels. But as the rapper Ice-T reportedly admitted, he puts shocking lyrics in his songs just to earn such a label; it guarantees luring the curious. The rock star Prince sang the praises of brother-sister incest. Often, music videos simply give such crass immorality an added visual dimension. Pop star Madonna’s video Justify My Love won notoriety for portraying sadomasochism and homosexual activity. Even MTV, a U.S. TV channel known at times to broadcast immoral videos with little compunction, refused to air this one.
Books: Consider a few examples gleaned from recent book reviews. American Psycho details the gruesome acts of a serial killer who practices unspeakably ghastly things, including cannibalism, with the bodies of his victims. Vox centers around one long telephone conversation during which a man and a woman who have never met stimulate each other sexually with erotic talk. Raptor follows the perverted sexual adventures of two sixth-century hermaphrodites, people with sexual features of both genders. Romance novels commonly endorse and glorify adultery and fornication. Comic books, once fairly harmless for children, now often feature graphic sex, violence, and occult themes.
Sports: Calls to ban boxing continue. Despite further evidence that every knockout punch inflicts some irreversible brain damage, huge purses and millions of spectators continue to lure fighters into the ring. Literally hundreds of boxers have been beaten to death this way.
Other sports, though, have even higher death rates. It is not uncommon to read of violence erupting on playing fields or among spectators. Riots sparked by nationalism or misguided “team spirit” have killed hundreds in stadiums around the world. Bullfighting, which the German weekly Die Zeit calls “probably the most beastly sporting event to have endured to modern times,” has recently surged in popularity in Spain and southern France. After a bull gored the famous 21-year-old matador José Cubero in the heart, the fallen hero was later carried in his coffin around a Madrid bullring to the cheers of 15,000 adoring fans. His death was replayed on Spanish TV over and over again.
Granted, these are extreme cases, and they do not mean that all entertainment in some of these various categories is bad. But a balanced view of entertainment must acknowledge that these extremes exist and are popular. Why? Well, have you ever noticed that what seemed extreme some years ago now strikes people as tame? The extremes tend to creep into the mainstream; people get used to them. What will you get used to?
The Issue of Quantity
Even if all entertainment were completely clean, though, there is still the issue of sheer quantity. The entertainment industry produces a prodigious flood of material. In the United States, for example, over 110,000 different books were published in 1991 alone. If you could read a book from cover to cover every single day, it would take you over 300 years to read just one year’s books! The U.S. film industry produces well over 400 movies a year, and many countries import these and produce their own movies as well. The Indian industry produces hundreds of Hindi films each year. And who can count the music records, compact discs, and tapes that come out each year? Then there is TV.
In some developed countries, there are scores of channels available on TV—cable stations, satellite channels, and regular broadcasts. That means that a steady stream of entertainment can flow into the home 24 hours a day. Sports, music, drama, comedy, science fiction, talk shows, movies, all at the touch of a button. With a VCR thousands of movies are also available, along with countless how-to videos, music videos, and even educational tapes on nature, history, and science.
But where is the time for all this entertainment? Technology may be able to bring us the miracle of instant entertainment—imagine how stunned Mozart would be to hear one of his symphonies over a portable stereo! However, technology cannot create the time it takes to indulge all such pleasures. In fact, in some countries where technology is highly developed, there has been a trend toward less leisure time available, rather than more.
So if we allow it to, entertainment could easily eat up all our leisure time. And we should remember that entertainment is only one form of recreation, usually the most passive sort. Most of us also need to get outside and do something more active, to participate rather than simply sit and be entertained. There are walks to take, good companions to enjoy, games to play.
If it is a mistake to allow entertainment to eat up all our leisure time, how much worse to let it consume the time that should be devoted to higher obligations, such as to our Creator, our families, our work, our friends! It is absolutely essential, then, to have a balanced view of entertainment! How do we decide what entertainment is bad for us, and how much of it is too much?
[Pictures on page 7]
Some entertainment can touch our hearts and enlighten us