2.14.2007

Malcolm in the Muddle


Malcolm Muggeridge - famed British journalist, one-time atheist, now hidden in Christ – wrote in his book ‘Christ and the Media’:

“… a nightmare that regularly afflicts me. I’m in the BBC studio, deep underground. Above, the mushroom clouds are forming, and the last traces of civilized life are disappearing. In the studio we are engrossed in a discussion about the alarming rise in juvenile delinquency. ‘What is needed,’ the life peeress is resonantly contending, ‘is more and better education.’ ‘If only,’ she goes on, ‘the age of consent could be lowered to nine, and the school age raised to nineteen; if only birth control pills could be distributed to Brownies with their morning milk, and sex education begin in the play school, and Lady Chatterly’s Lover get into the comics, all would yet be well.’ It is at this point that I wake up screaming, so that I never know how the discussion proceeds, and what is its outcome, if any.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I see the point of this post, unless it's to say that former atheists or those who are hidden in Christ (whatever that means) have odd dreams or are prone to bizarre screaming attacks. Most of what the "life peeress" says - there's one abominable exception - sounds fine to me.

1) more and better education.

Sounds good.

2) If only the age of consent could be lowered to nine, and the school age raised to nineteen;

Sounds bad

3) if only birth control pills could be distributed to Brownies with their morning milk

Barring health effects, sounds good.

4) sex education begin in the play school

Sounds good

5) Lady Chatterly’s Lover get into the comics

No opinion.

Perhaps the point is that talking about these things while the world is consumed in a mushroom cloud is pretty silly? But that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the posts.

Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

Hi its John again.
Why do "conservatives" take such mediocre social commentators as Muggeridge so seriously?
And what has "christ" got to do with the media? As though "christian" media was ever a source of Reality, Truth, and Beauty!

And besides which Christianity has been an integral player in the western imperial project, with its drive to total power and control, when it was coopted by the Roman state---a "holy" empire being the ultimate oxymoron.
And because of such compromising involvement it (the church) has seldom been a champion of freedom, and was often the champion of tyranny---look at its active involvement in the slave trade for instance. And the phrase "onward christians soldiers" says a lot about the bedrock of the christian world-view.

And look at the untold horrors of the "religious" wars in Europe after the "reformation". All because of allegiance to different sets or words---words being the ultimate and perhaps deadliest of idolatries.
This essay describes the function and purpose of the "media"--it particularly applies to most, if not all right wing media which seldom if ever calls its readers/viewers to exercise intelligent discrimination about anything---a certain fox comes to mind!!
1. www.dabase.org/popdisgu.htm

The first essay on this reference describes how and why the "church" has always dumbed down its membership requirements.
2. www.dabase.org/proofch6.htm

Plus I quite like these two interpretations of the role & function of the "media" in these times of wall to wall propaganda and spin---the right wing so called "conservative" think tanks being in effect propaganda/spin factories.
3. www.thirdworldtraveler.com
4. www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com

Have you ever noticed that capitalism has depended on its "success", and its continued "growth" by turning the former 7 deadly sins into the 7 cardinal virtues? And that it is the so called "conservatives" that celebrate the "success" of capitalism.