Media Heresy

We attended a meeting at my son's new school this morning. Being a Waldorf school, the school discourages computers, television and video games in the home. This attracts families that readily reject electronic media. While I see the wisdom and the attraction of such a paradigm, it strikes me as a form of willful ignorance. Certainly there is a lot of emptiness in much media. There is a lot of violence and commercial manipulation as well. There are also many instances where discriminatory perspectives are perpetuated, especially when it comes to the objectification of women. All the more reason to practice discernment rather than avoidance. How does avoiding something as invasive and omnipresent as media further understanding of the world we live in? Isn't it a bit naive to think that one can be media free in an urban environment?
Last year we went to a forum of parents of young children on media. Most of the parents in attendance were of the no tv household type. I didn't really know why they were there. To toot their own horns? It seems to me that refusing any form of electronic form of media in your home is a form of moral laziness and hypocrisy akin to pious church attendance. If going to church gives one the strength to weather life's moral dilemmas on a daily basis that's wonderful. But my experience is that many church goers thinks it buys them some clemency. It's a band-aid of sorts. Like they don't have to worry about things because they go to church. We don't do media so why is little Billy pretending that stick is a g-u-n?
He must have learned it at school.
Or maybe there's a thing going on called the collective unconscious.
I heard a wonderful story today about a little girl that was never allowed to watch Star Wars but all of chums at school told her all about it. So she played Star Wars for a few years without ever seeing it. Finally she was allowed to see the film and she was totally disappointed because she didn't feel like they got it right. Her imagination took the archetypes and made them her own. Which says a lot about the little girl as well as George Lucas.
What do I know about it all anyway? I make films that deal with incest, alcoholism, madness, inappropriate relationships, moral bankruptcy and other decadence. I spent the last week writing a mixed martial arts treatment for a notorious Republican lobbyist that is running a nascent film production company from prison. If the Rudolf Steiner folk only knew that such a wolf was in their midst.


From a glass house,
Signore Direttore