Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Cost of Entertainment

It is a fact of life that people wish to be entertained. One theory is that its purpose is to dissuade us from asking the right questions and looking for answers. We continue to preoccupy ourselves with the monotonously mundane and the mindboggling magical. In other words, we’re either slaving away for our basic needs or escaping into fantasy.

A long time ago, the Roman Empire was a force to behold. It held all the cards: Its citizens had everything they could need and want. What they wanted most was entertainment.

They got it.

For this need, a billion animals were imported from around the world to be slaughtered for sport. Never mind that several species became extinct due to the heavy demands of a bloodthirsty populace. The deaths of both animals and people (as long as they did not belong to the group) did not affect them at all.

This was before the television was invented.

However, we haven’t changed at all. Even with all our advancements, we are content with not thinking, not acting. We are content to watch. Never mind phrases such as greenhouse gases, climate change, and natural disasters. The TV needs electricity, shopping bags need paper and the disposable lifestyle is too convenient to forsake.

And if there is some form of entertainment that highlights the need for change, it is only talked about until the latest scandal.

What will happen to the world ten years from now? What will happen to me 10 years from now?

I don’t know, but right now, I don’t think I’d want to know the answer. So maybe I just shouldn't think about it.