Pop goes the weasel

Van C. Gessel spoke at the devotional today, on forging links between other cultures (including our own in the past) and ourselves. It was a really good talk. He first spoke out very strongly against the contemporary pop culture that is running rampant in our society, particularly movies and music. He related how he read through the lyrics of the top 20 songs on the radio -- all but one were sensual, vulgar, violent, or in some other way spiritually harmful. He also reiterated the prophets' ban on R-rated movies and entertainment that is suggestive, immoral, or pornographic in any way (that's also in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet). I've noticed here that many of the youth in my age group seem to think that if a movie is PG-13, it's automatically okay to watch, regardless of how much profanity or sex or violence is in it. Indeed, I've met only a very few who care to monitor what movie and TV programs they watch beyond avoiding R-rated movies; most are anxious to watch all the movies that are playing and listen to whatever music is most popular. They dismiss this part of the commandment as being not for them, or they say that the filth doesn't affect them. And then of course they also label anyone who does want to follow the Lord in this matter as "self-righteous." Argh. Some of my friends are addicted (really addicted) to the TV show 24, to the point that it has become their god. I've seen just enough of it to know that it's not clean by any stretch of the imagination, and it certainly doesn't fit as being uplifting or edifying or pure or virtuous or lovely. Quite the opposite, but in spite of that the suspense hooks people and lures them in. Can a thick plot justify immoral, profane, and violent behavior, no matter how interesting it is?

Anyway, continuing on with the talk, Dr. Gessel said that we need to preserve and learn to love the cultures of olden days (the literature, the music, the dances, etc.), in order to understand our ancestors. He talked a lot about reading, which I loved because I'm a book person. But I'm not doing very good justice to his talk (it was very well done), so I'll just end here and post a link as soon as the transcript is available.