The Glamorous World of Entertainment

HOLLYWOOD! No matter where you live in the world, that name probably conjures up thoughts of movies and entertainment. Variously called the entertainment capital of the world and Tinseltown, no other place is so nearly synonymous with show business as is this Los Angeles, California, suburb. It certainly seems to be the world center of glitz and glamour. As one writer said, “the image of Hollywood as the fabricator of tinselled cinematic dreams has become worldwide.”

Entertainment​—Big Business

But it is not just the Hollywood image that has spread worldwide; “Hollywood” is a huge, globe-​encircling export business. In fact, according to Time magazine, after aerospace equipment, entertainment is the United States’ largest export product. The industry rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and a sizable part​—some 20 percent—​comes from other countries.

The United States soaks up income from 35 percent of the world’s book-​sales market, 50 percent of its recording revenues, 55 percent of both its movie and home video revenues, and from 75 to 85 percent of its TV revenues.

In return for this vast fortune, Hollywood entertains the world. Not that the world is always happy about it​—more than one country has grumbled about American cultural imperialism, as their youth abandon local culture in favor of the flashy American import. That is not to say, though, that entertainment comes only from the United States. Many countries have their own entertainment industry​—films, TV, recordings, books, sports, and so on.

Entertainment​—How Easy Today

Regardless of who does or who should entertain the world, what is remarkable is that entertainment itself is so accessible, so abundant today that we have a revolution of sorts on our hands. To illustrate: Had you lived a century ago, how often would you have been entertained by trained, talented performers? Even had you lived in the wealthiest of lands, you would likely have been entertainment-​starved in the eyes of many of today’s generation. For instance, you would have had the burden of getting yourself to an opera or a symphony concert. Today we simply listen to portable stereos that play any type of music that exists, or we plop down on the family couch and, at the touch of a button, are entertained by almost any kind of performance imaginable.

In any developed country, you can find in many homes at least one TV, a VCR, and a CD or a cassette player, as well as other electronic gadgets. Some children grow up with TV monitors around the house almost as commonplace as mirrors. In less developed countries, many villages and neighborhoods have their local TV center where people congregate in the evenings to be entertained. Mankind has become TV obsessed. Leisure hours are filled with more and more forms of entertainment.

Is there anything wrong with that? Are there any dangers in modern entertainment? Or does today’s profusion of entertainment simply mean an embarrassment of riches? Let us take a balanced look at the glamorous world of entertainment.

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

What Entertainment Will You Choose?

HAVING a balanced view of entertainment is one thing. Showing balance in what entertainment we choose is quite another. It is fairly easy to see that entertainment has its proper place, but much of it is garbage and is simply a waste of time. Still, we have day-​to-​day decisions to make​—and they are not always easy.

As we have seen, the entertainment industry does not make deciding easier. There is a bewildering array of choices, but for thousands of years, the Bible has given honesthearted people the guidance they need. Modern technology has not rendered Bible principles obsolete; on the contrary, they are more useful and needed in these troubled times than ever before. So let us see how we can put such principles to work when it comes to the two danger areas of entertainment​—its content and the time it consumes.

What Are the Bible’s Guidelines?

A youth kills himself, and it turns out that he was deeply involved in heavy-​metal rock music that encouraged suicide. A 14-​year-​old girl bludgeons her mother to death, and it seems that she too was obsessed with heavy metal. A 15-​year-​old boy kills a woman, and his lawyer claims he was influenced by slasher-​type horror films. A movie about gang violence opens, and there are gang fights right in the theaters and in the line for the film.

Clearly, the content of the entertainment we choose has some effect on us. Some experts might dismiss the above accounts as mere anecdotal evidence. Bible principles, though, bear directly on the problem. For example, consider these profound words: “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.” (Proverbs 13:20) Does not some entertainment amount to exactly that​—walking, or associating, with people who are stupid, or morally senseless? Similarly, 1 Corinthians 15:33 reads: “Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil useful habits.” There is no equivocating here, no experts with opposing views launching statistics at one another. It is a simple law of human nature. If we regularly associate with those who are morally debased, our own habits will suffer.

Such principles are equally helpful when it comes to the idolizing of sports, movie, TV, and music stars. Although stars often glorify violence or immorality, both in their performances and in their personal lives, their fans​—especially the young ones—​still seem to worship them. The newspaper The European recently noted: “Sociologists point out that in an increasingly secular society pop stars may be fulfilling the role once played by religion in many young lives.” But note what Psalm 146:3 says: “Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.” And Proverbs 3:31 says: “Do not become envious of the man of violence, nor choose any of his ways.”

Another key principle: When making decisions, Christians should consider the effect not only on themselves but also on others in the Christian congregation, including those with more sensitive consciences. (1 Corinthians 10:23-33) On the positive side, Bible principles also help us set standards for entertainment from which we may safely choose. The apostle Paul counseled: “Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things.”​—Philippians 4:8.

These principles have guided God’s people for centuries. Christians in ancient Rome did not need some explicit law telling them that the gladiatorial games, with all their slaughter and sadism, were not proper entertainment. They simply applied such principles as the above and thereby protected themselves, their families, and their congregations.

How to Choose

Genuine Christians do the same today. When choosing entertainment, they first check into its moral content. How? Well, before buying a record, for instance, they look at its cover. How is the music advertised? Does it promote debased values? Hatred? Rebellion? Rage? Sex and seduction? Sometimes the lyrics are available to be checked. Similarly, book covers often have summaries of the contents, and sometimes reviews are available. With movies too there are often reviews in local newspapers and magazines. Some countries offer film-​rating systems that may help provide guidelines. Obviously, if today’s debased world finds certain entertainment too sexually explicit, immoral, or violent, it is hard to imagine that a Christian would set his standards lower and willingly take it into his mind and heart.

On the other hand, wise King Solomon once warned: “Do not become righteous overmuch, nor show yourself excessively wise. Why should you cause desolation to yourself?” (Ecclesiastes 7:16) Self-​righteousness is a very easy trap to fall into when it comes to entertainment. We may feel strongly about a choice we have made, having weighed Bible principles carefully and prayerfully. Yet, we may find that others who live by the same principles decide somewhat differently. Don’t let that rob you of joy. Each of us must be responsible for his own choices.​—Galatians 6:4.

How Much Is Too Much?

The world’s value system is appallingly out of proportion when it comes to the priority it assigns to leisure. For instance, a recent editorial in the trade journal Parks & Recreation called recreation “the essence of living.” Similarly, The New York Times Magazine recently said of Saturday night, a popular time for recreation: “If you add them up, there are many more weekdays in our lives than there are Saturday nights, but Saturday night is the one worth living for.” Some sociologists even argue that in the world’s more affluent nations, society is now based on leisure, with religion itself just one more leisure-​time activity.

Christians are not surprised by these warped priorities. The Bible long ago foretold that in these critical “last days,” people would be “lovers of themselves, . . . lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:1-4) But Bible principles help us to put our own priorities in proper order. As Jesus said, “you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.” (Mark 12:30) Therefore, to God’s people, their love of him comes first in life. Far from relegating their Christian ministry to a leisure-​time activity, it is their top priority. Even their secular work only supports that vital career.​—Matthew 6:33.

So when it comes to entertainment, a Christian must count the cost, determine how much time it will take compared to how much time it is worth. (Luke 14:28) If pursuing any entertainment will mean neglecting important things, such as personal or family Bible study, time with fellow believers, the Christian ministry, or essential family obligations, then it is not worth the price.

What Your Choices Reveal About You

The amount of time we devote to entertainment will reveal much about our priorities, just as the content of the entertainment we choose will reveal much about our morals and the sincerity of our dedication. Our choices will tell people in the community what kind of people we are, what values we stand for. Our choices will tell our friends, our family, and our congregation whether we are balanced or rigid, consistent or hypocritical, righteous or self-​righteous.

Let your decisions represent you and yours, since you stand before the Creator, who examines the hearts and motives of us all. Hebrews 4:13 says: “There is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.” Only God can see the answer to the question that lies at the core of this subject: Will we really be guided by his principles in every aspect of life?