My (earnest, irate) thoughts

I just found an article that explains, with a better vocabulary, how I feel about television.

Historically, I’ve tended to see TV as a morally neutral entity; its good (necessity) or evil (uselessness) depended on what a person decides to watch. PBS = good, Lifetime Television for Women = bad, for example.

But I recall that sometimes (in sporadic, enlightened moments) I had no patience even for “educational” television. I looked at the television and saw only a talking box, and it seemed eerily insane to look into it at the fantasy being sold inside. A fantasy of glorified romance or violence amidst buy-this-truck-to-feel-better-about-your-place-in-the-world reminders. In those moments, it seemed spooky and crazy that with two people in a room, we preferred to look forward and be entertained by a machine rather than talk with each other.

In this world people sit transfixed by what is essentially an electronic box emanating coloured lights, at the cost of living in the reality around them, face to face with other people. In short, television fosters a consumerist society and creates a society of people detached from their own real world.

For millennia people told each other stories, in their own languages, that reflected their own cultural mores and values. Now, even in remote corners of the world, the stories people are hearing reinforce solely Western notions of death and sexuality… as if the hands behind the media are trying to create a streamlined, homogenous culture. As our detachment and disillusionment grows, so rise the suicide rates in America and Europe. And everywhere, there is a desire for American consumer goods that, like a thirst for sea water, increases steadily until you die, still thirsty.

When I was working as a freelance writer in Colorado and living right at at the poverty line, I learned how to entertain myself cheaply. That’s when I learned to appreciate my computer, long walks and the many wonders of a public library. And partly because it’s so expensive and partly because it’s so unnecessary, my husband and I have never gotten the cable hooked up. To be fair, I’ve heard DVR and TiVo lessen the effects of commercials, and therefore, on someone being driven unheeding toward mindless consumerism. But that’s more money, and I remain unconvinced that there’s anything I could learn from television that I can’t learn on the (much cheaper) Internet.

Out of everyone at my office, I am the only one who has never seen “that commercial with the…” or “that episode of…” and who isn’t trying to engage others in meaningless dialogues about our shared “culture” of television. And I like that. I even like that I am not as well-informed about current events. The truly important sound bytes make it into my brain via my co-workers — the mental QB who tortures dogs, for example — and all the zionist infotainment and/or celebrity news is pretty much avoided.

But the problem lies in how to replace the gaping hole left by the lack of “input” from the television. It’s not hard… one just has to have someone knowledgeable to talk with. Yusuf and I sometimes talk all night about Islam. One day, I asked if he knows what happens when we die.

There are two questions that secular Western civilization is unable to answer. And these two questions are on all our minds… whether we spend our lives trying to avoid them, or answer them. One, what is the meaning of life; and two, what happens to us when we die? Islam answers both questions.

The meaning of life is a test, a trial from Allah. How we react to the things that happen to us determines the nature of afterlife for each individual. Do we seek the permanence of God, or do we seek the transient nature of the joys of this world? Both poverty and affluence are tests, the latter arguably being the greater one. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Muhammad said, “Two wolves entering a flock of sheep will do less harm than greed and wealth will do to a man’s religion.” Peace and blessings of Allah be upon them both.

“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. To Us must ye return.” Qur’an 21:35

Death is the separation of the soul from the body, but it is not the annihilation of either. When death comes, the angel Azrael seizes your soul and each of us goes to our grave alone. The soul is returned after we are inside the grave, when two angels, Munkar and Nakir, ask us several questions: Who is your Creator? What is your religion? Who is your prophet? What is your book? Then they will ask your age and what caused your death, and about your property: how you earned it and on what did you spend it. As Muslims, we feel hopeful when we think of death; we believe we will be able to answer the questions, and we believe in the all-encompassing compassion of Allah to forgive us for our shortcomings.

“And among His signs is this: you see the earth barren and desolate, but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He who gives life to the (dead) earth can surely give life to (men) who are dead. For He has power over all things.” Qur’an 41:39