Media invades Hillsdale bubble
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Opinion
We live cocooned by media, wrapped in a thousand threads of constantly available interaction. Six siblings prepared me, however, to ignore nearly anything through sheer survival instinct. But either my defenses are a sieve, or one day I dropped my mental gates; for I saw something that certainly dropped my jaw.
It was a group of people sitting in a room, strumming strings and beating drums. They were playing instruments, right? No. They were pretending to play instruments. Did I mention these people were all well over three years old?
This is how I discovered Guitar Hero. (Yes. Just now. I'm sheltered, remember?) Guitar Hero is a video game in which players make points by playing with pieces of plastic connected to a television screen, emulating an ability to play guitar or drums while learning neither.
Everyone needs to relax now and then, take his mind off a busy day or week by playing cards or simply sitting. I find it hard to believe, however, that stroking a plastic instrument while you stare, blank-faced, at a giant television screen, restores your mind and body during your leisure hours; neither is it an appropriate amusement for an adult. There's something puerile about mindless entertainment; something retarded about an overstuffed man in an equally overstuffed chair, rejoicing that he has beaten the 32nd level of Final Fantasy, sounding for the world like the victorious Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. Why rejoice in actual accomplishment when you can spare yourself all the hard work and none of the excitement? Perhaps it's because our world has forgotten maturity. We seem to think of it as merely something reached by surviving our first eighteen years, rather than an achievement deserving honor and demanding pursuit.
But adulthood doesn't just mean you can drink or drive, but that you are also wise enough to avoid them in conjunction. Adulthood means the capacity to discriminate between good and evil and the power to choose good if (and especially when) it comes at the expense of personal comfort or preference. This is why having children, before society allowed children to have sex, was once the exclusive sphere and stamp of maturity. Parenting requires routine selflessness - months of sleepless nights, forgoing vacations in Bermuda to put the kids in private school, driving a minivan instead of a sports car - in place of endless self-indulgence.
It was a group of people sitting in a room, strumming strings and beating drums. They were playing instruments, right? No. They were pretending to play instruments. Did I mention these people were all well over three years old?
This is how I discovered Guitar Hero. (Yes. Just now. I'm sheltered, remember?) Guitar Hero is a video game in which players make points by playing with pieces of plastic connected to a television screen, emulating an ability to play guitar or drums while learning neither.
Everyone needs to relax now and then, take his mind off a busy day or week by playing cards or simply sitting. I find it hard to believe, however, that stroking a plastic instrument while you stare, blank-faced, at a giant television screen, restores your mind and body during your leisure hours; neither is it an appropriate amusement for an adult. There's something puerile about mindless entertainment; something retarded about an overstuffed man in an equally overstuffed chair, rejoicing that he has beaten the 32nd level of Final Fantasy, sounding for the world like the victorious Athenians at the Battle of Marathon. Why rejoice in actual accomplishment when you can spare yourself all the hard work and none of the excitement? Perhaps it's because our world has forgotten maturity. We seem to think of it as merely something reached by surviving our first eighteen years, rather than an achievement deserving honor and demanding pursuit.
But adulthood doesn't just mean you can drink or drive, but that you are also wise enough to avoid them in conjunction. Adulthood means the capacity to discriminate between good and evil and the power to choose good if (and especially when) it comes at the expense of personal comfort or preference. This is why having children, before society allowed children to have sex, was once the exclusive sphere and stamp of maturity. Parenting requires routine selflessness - months of sleepless nights, forgoing vacations in Bermuda to put the kids in private school, driving a minivan instead of a sports car - in place of endless self-indulgence.
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