Actually we’re a republic, not a democracy. (The U.S.)
There does come a point where one has to draw the line. As infants and children, we don’t ‘decide for ourselves’ what to eat, or wear, or when to sleep, etc. as a general rule. If our parents/ caregivers don’t exercise some ‘parental guidance’ or some reasonable discipline, we could wind up hurt or dead. Yet we’re afraid to speak out about the raunchiness of the media, because we don’t want to ‘dictate’ what ‘other people’ can do, even when those others are children exposed to inappropriate images.
It’s like the old, “I’m against abortion but I can’t tell somebody else how to live ‘their’ life”.
Now MTV, like many other things in the media or indeed in ‘the world’ will give spiritual hurt in a lot of instances just as any sin, or near occasion of sin, will give spiritual hurt. Some 26 years or so ago, it began, and it ‘pushed the envelope’. Now stuff on the ‘regular’ networks are promoting and showing stuff that would have been shocking on MTV in 1980–and as for cable, between the nudity and the foul language, there isn’t much that isn’t available for show, again, stuff that wouldn’t even have passed MTV in 1980.
Did MTV contribute to the loosening up of broadcast standards? Sure; so did other things. Are we **really ** better off because we simply cannot be ‘permitted’ to inflict our standards on broadcast media although small vocal fringe groups have spent the last 25 years presenting their standards? Really? Have our lives become more ‘civilized’? Or have we become more greedy, selfish, lazy, foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, nasty, and hurtful? Think about it. Is the average man or woman today a real improvement over the average man or woman 50 or 100 years ago when it comes to virtues like honesty, hard work, temperance, chastity, politeness, and charity? And what has really changed? Where do men and women’s behaviors get modeled? In the family (which has been fragmented more and more), and in society (which has relaxed its standards everywhere especially when it comes to manners and mores). Where do we see society’s influence? In our homes, our towns, and especially in this ‘information’ age in the media. If there are any ‘differences’, which group is usually portrayed as ‘better’–the people talking about trying to ‘upgrade’ society (how judgmental) or the smart aleck TV kids, the hotshot entertainers with wardrobe malfunctions, the latest celebrity ‘couple’ who show ‘everybody’ just how cool ‘doing your own thing’ is.
Haven’t you noticed that, once you ‘give in’ on a ‘little’ something, it becomes almost impossible to ‘go back’? Oh it seems so innocuous. . .how we hate in our ‘republican’ society to think that anybody can set themselves up ‘in judgment’ (hateful word), and how we break our arms patting ourselves on the back because we are so tolerant of the behaviors of others. Those same groups and individuals who have forced acceptance of things unthinkable even 40 years ago onto ‘mainstream’ America are not likely to be content with being tolerated. Hard to believe? Well, a lot of things have happened in the last 50 years or so that would have been ‘hard to believe’ before that. Already we’re being told as Christians that the establishment clause proves that we cannot ‘show any sign’ of our belief except as ‘the state’ permits.
But turn on the TV, pick up a magazine, turn on the radio, walk out on the streets. . . you’ll hear every kind of foul language and see every kind of sinful behavior presented as a given individual’s ‘right’ to free speech. Try to exercise your right to free speech by talking about Christianity though. . .oh no, that isn’t tolerant, that isn’t correct, that is hate speech, that is judgmentalism.
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