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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Joker

The latest entry from the DC Comics is the new movie, Joker. I haven't seen it. A friend wanted to know why I wasn't interested. Our conversation made me wonder and I'm sure you'll be able to help me figure this out.

The movie's website describes it as a movie about Arthur Fleck (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who is struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society. "Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study." The idea appears to be the sad, sad story of a mistreated guy who only wants a little attention -- he dreamed of being a comedian -- and becomes a supervillain for it. It appears that the reason Joker is such a bad guy is because he has inner demons, and the people of Gotham can be a cruel group of people. So we have a motive for the mayhem and perhaps -- just maybe -- we should feel a little better about this poor tortured soul with his pseudobulbar affect (an actual medical condition that causes uncontrollable outbursts of laughter) who just becomes as bad as people make him. I wasn't interested.

My friend didn't understand why. "Will it change your life? Will it change your views? Will it change your values?" And this gets to the question I'm pursuing. Most of us like to think that we are not shaped by the entertainment we indulge. We poo-poo those people that claim "Violent video games and cartoons make violent kids" and the like. On the other hand, we also know that's not entirely true. For instance, pornography, like an insidious drug, gets into your head and twists your perspectives without you even knowing it. It is indeed a dangerous thing to even dabble in.

So we do recognize that some entertainment is uplifting -- positive influence -- and some is dangerous -- negative influence. But what about the rest -- the stuff in between? What part of it is actually influencing us and what is just deflecting -- simple entertainment? Does that even exist? Or does everything influence our thinking one way or another whether or not we're aware of it? I prefer to think that it's not a given that all that we observe has some influence. I don't think I believe that.

Biblically, we know that David wrote, "I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless" (Psa 101:3). Note that it's not "evil"; it's worthless. That sounds neither positive nor negative -- and he was going to avoid it. We know that Paul wrote, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Php 4:8). So it would seem that God (through Paul) does have an opinion on what we think about. That would surely place severe limits on the movies and music we imbibe (since so much is not in those categories).

What do you think? Not so much about the movie; I don't much care about that. I mean about the idea, about the danger of watching and listening to "harmless" stuff that could actually harm or, dare I say it, might even be sin? Can it be dangerous? Can it be wrong? What do you think?

2 comments:

Bob said...

I often wondered what it would be like if blindfolds were handed out during each church service. without the visual distractions, we would be better suited to listen. so much of everyday life is visually oriented. it is with eyes first; that we covet.
yes; the tongue can set the world ablaze, but it is with eyes that we are seduced to crave the candy colored enticements of the world.
ok i know this sounds so much like loquacious flatulence, but i never heard of a blind man have trouble with porn... just saying

Stan said...

"i never heard of a blind man have trouble with porn"

I get your point, although the statement may be too much. I knew a blind guy who asked me to fix his computer because the color was wrong on his monitor.