BobW
--- Carl Remick <carlremick at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/21/07, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes but my claim isn't that some passages don't
> contain beauty but
> > rather that reading the gospels to find guidance
> for today is pointless. ...
> > If I watched TeeVee I would be far more pop
> cultural literate than I am.
> > I am shockingly uninformed on so much pop culture
> but it irritates me so
> > much I will not spend the time to become more
> knowledgeable in this
> > area.
>
> The notion of trying to be literate about an
> illiterate culture
> strikes me as doomed from the get-go. In an obvious
> effort to broaden
> his viewership, Keith Olbermann (sheepishly) devotes
> about half his
> show to chronicling and even analyzing the latest
> developments re
> Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, American Idol, etc.
> It is painful to
> watch. Though Britney, for one, does indeed
> bestride today's world
> like a Colossus (being described by Wikipedia, e.g.,
> as a true
> Renaissance woman -- "pop music singer, songwriter,
> dancer, actress,
> and author") pondering today's pop culture at length
> yields sharply
> diminishing returns. While it's useful occasionally
> to cast a
> canister into the turbid waters of contemporary
> culture -- in order to
> get a sample and measure the increasing E. coli
> count -- I definitely
> wouldn't recommend swimming there.
>
> But I'll say this much for TV: Due to illness and
> fatigue I've logged
> a lot of boob-tube time this summer. Since the
> regular network fare
> is execrable, I have for the first time in my life
> sought refuge in
> sportscasts. And I have finally gained a grasp of
> what all the
> excitement about Major League Baseball is about.
> For the first time I
> see MLB stars not as pampered multi-millionaires but
> as performers
> with really tough jobs who face extraordinary
> psychological and
> physical stress. I can also see that winning the
> game depends on
> *genuine* one-for-all-and-all-for-one team spirit --
> not the bullshit
> "teamwork" I'm used to in the corporate world, where
> folks evince all
> the camaraderie of galley slaves.
>
> So in conclusion: Go Yankees!
>
> Carl
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>