I have a few general observations and I don’t really have the time to develop my thoughts in a series of coherent posts but I still wanted to get them out.
The Amish schoolgirl killer. It would be easy to conclude that there is a whole lot of misogyny going on here. What if, at the root of this killer’ outrage, lies not a hatred of women, but rather a hatred of God? I was struck by the fact that he deliberately chose to kill the girls which were the closest in age to his daughter if she had lived.
Apparently, he remained unable to resolve his anger at his daughter’s death and blamed God. I have no idea of the level of his Christian observance but one powerful motif that runs through Christianity is harm brought to one who harms a child. Even if he was not an active Christian, he was still raised in North American society where that ethos is still evident in popular culture. He seemed unable to reconcile his own pain and anger and instead chose to act in a way that would cause others to experience the same kind of anger and grief he experienced with the added benefit of punishing God for taking his daughter. Twisted? Obviously, but it is just a thought to keep in mind.
One of the things I try to make a point of doing is watching at least one television show with each of my children. It’s a way of keeping in tune with what they are watching and gives me a little insight into how their minds are developing. I discovered a great deal of parenting is contextualizing experiences and ideas for my children.
Movies and television are a great format for doing that. Luckily for me, it has gotten a trifle easier to tolerate and stomach their choices intellectually from the days when Barney the Dinosaur reigned supreme and unchallenged on our television set. As I write this the “I love you” theme song raises unbidden to my memory. Get thee behind me Satan.
One of the new television shows that I am watching with my youngest son is called “Jericho” and seems to centre around the inhabitants of a small mid-western town after the United States has suffered multiple nuclear strikes. I was watching it last night on tape with Isaiah Sender and was trying valiantly not to give into my boredom or succumb to the big sleep (which was calling my name); when I was struck but how different the “nuclear strike” shows of this age are from the “nuclear strike” shows of the eighties that I remember.
In the eighties, the emphasis was all on the absolute devastation a nuclear strike would cause, and how the survivors of any nuclear strike would eek out an existence of absolute and abject misery; wherein the living would envy the dead of a first strike. In Jericho, we are showed the possibility that life beyond a first strike would not necessarily be one of absolute and abject misery. In fact, problems might arise, but certainly the problems are not insurmountable ones.
Why have we moved from focusing on the devastation a nuclear strike intrinsically causes to the survivability of a nuclear strike? Just what is Hollywood’s point with this show? Is it to prepare us culturally for the idea that a nuclear strike isn’t all that bad so who cares if Iranian nutters have nukes and/or threaten to use them?
1 comment:
I hope you do not mind me posting a comment. I just want to say I think it is wonderful that you are spending time with your children. It is so important to spend good quality time with them. I also have little ones that watch TV and I also try to sit with them to see what they are watch. At young ages they are so impressible.
I think you made a good point about that man that killed the Amish girls. I think we should all take the example that the Amish made about forgiveness.
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