Sunday, September 7, 2008

Big Brother, Dumbing Down & All That . . .


Another season of the Big Brother television programme is finally over, which means at least that those particular airwaves will be a little cleaner! Since the theatre critic and author, Kenneth Tynan, used the 'F' word during a live TV debate in November, it has become one of the most offensive and yet widely used expletives on the box and in wider society. Some so-called personalities such as the TV cook Gordon Ramsey, have made it a Trademark. Sadly, considering that a Trademark is a mark which identifies and promotes, this means that one cannot think of Ramsey without thinking of his appalling lack of verbal control when it comes to the usage of the English language.

Of course, the constant use of the 'F' word in our society, and in particular on the television, merely serves to illustrate something which I was taught as a child, that the use of expletives in normal everyday conversation only showed up the abysmal lack of vocabulary in the user, displaying, as it did, an inability to express themselves without resorting to expletives or blasphemy as a result of a complete failure to know how to express themselves in any other way.

Does the use of the word shock any more? In most instances, probably not, but it is nevertheless still offensive. To many of today's so-called 'Media Celebrities', especially the minor ones, it appears that they believe that no conversation can possibly be complete without using the word, yet how pleasant to listen to someone who is sufficiently erudite to be able to speak in flowing language that requires no such emphasis other than that which the English language contains naturally.

Returning to the subject of the Big Brother programme, the constant usage of this word by the contestants, virtually without exception and during the course of quite mundane conversation, illustrates the level to which the 'Dumbing Down' of our society's educational standards have sunk. Of course we live in a society which generally is extremely materialistic and hedonistic, and the combination of these two characteristics makes for an extremely self-centred and selfish society, one whose prime aim in life is to amass as much money as possible, preferably for little or no input, at the same time ensuring that pleasure is the key factor to all things.
Gone are the characteristics that display genuine concern for others before self, and a desire to live lives that are both moral and ethical. The pursuit of self-enjoyment generally assumes its own code, often devoid of morality in the true sense of the word, and the ethic of obtaining all that is desired irrespective of the cost to others is often the only ethic considered acceptable, or at least displayed.
Interestingly, the further away from recognition of, and obedience to, God, the greater the slide into the morass that is representative of such a great part of our society. Of course in acknowledging and following the laws and teaching that God has laid down both in the Ten Commandments and through Jesus Christ, a hedonistic, materialistic, life-style is pretty impossible to follow, for as Christians we are led to consider the needs of others before our own, and to live out a litany based on sharing the love of Christ. That means that we must die to self if we are to fulfil all that we are created for. It may be argued that we should enjoy ourselves in the here and now because we don't know what the future holds. Well, is it not possible to enjoy oneself by being generous with all that we've been blessed with? I would suggest that one is much happier when giving than when perpetually seeking the unattainable.
How has this word become in such common use? Surely the answer to that is because even those who find it offensive have arrived at a point of reluctant acceptance of it rather than constantly complaining of its usage. So how can we change this? That's easy! Complain to the appropriate authority constantly, advising that it is unacceptable. Change can never come about when people do nothing towards it. Change comes as a result of hard-fought battles, so get your armour on and start fighting, today not tomorrow!

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