Pornography on Televsion
On Tyranny And Television: The Mainstreaming Of Pornography, by Jameson Taylor and reproduced with permission by the The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Vice Province of Japan/Korea begins with this quotation:
"Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow.
"In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next,... And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy..."
The original quote was written about the Third Reich but is applied in the article to the inroads made by pornography into mainstream culture via television.
As I visit the United States only once a year, I skip over many of "the hundreds of little [imperceptible] steps" and am shocked each time I visit by how far television has deteriorated from the days of "The Twighlight Zone" or even "M*A*S*H". I'm scheduled to visit this upcoming Christmas and need to brace myself for another onslaught. I'll try to limit my viewing as I did on my visit last year to only skipping through the channels to confirm that our culture is in serious, perhaps irreversible, decline.
On Tyranny And Television: The Mainstreaming Of Pornography, by Jameson Taylor and reproduced with permission by the The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Vice Province of Japan/Korea begins with this quotation:
"Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow.
"In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next,... And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy..."
The original quote was written about the Third Reich but is applied in the article to the inroads made by pornography into mainstream culture via television.
As I visit the United States only once a year, I skip over many of "the hundreds of little [imperceptible] steps" and am shocked each time I visit by how far television has deteriorated from the days of "The Twighlight Zone" or even "M*A*S*H". I'm scheduled to visit this upcoming Christmas and need to brace myself for another onslaught. I'll try to limit my viewing as I did on my visit last year to only skipping through the channels to confirm that our culture is in serious, perhaps irreversible, decline.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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