I think it’s the province of some senior citizens and some pretentious artsy types to bemoan the deteriorating conditions of the American cultural landscape. However, their claims are not without cause. There simply is not a widespread interest in works of quality and ingenuity and the situation seems to be growing increasingly bleak.
Granted, I, a theatre major and hopeful future member of the artistic community, am biased to a significant degree. I’m a playwright; of course I want people to come to the theatre. Still, owning up completely to my skewed viewpoint of the issue, I’d like to address this ever-growing problem.
Why, one might ask, is it a problem? If someone enjoys watching Transformers, why should they be forced to sit through Dead Poets’ Society? One might make the argument that such questions are a matter of personal taste to which I would respond in the same vein. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a sweet tooth; it’s when sweets take over your diet that the problems set in. We obviously would never sustain our bodies with a regimen of Twinkies and Kool Aid. So why are so many of us willing to let ourselves starve artistically?
I write from the perspective of a twenty-two-year-old young man attending a university that hosts some students whose taste in film has not matured past Disney nor their literary experience further than the covers of Harry Potter. I write fully aware that my complaints are nothing new; they just come from a more desperate place as “all things bright and beautiful” continue to disappear from this darkening world of ours.
What does this mean for us as Latter-Day Saints? Does it come down to each man or woman’s personal definition of: “virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy”? As far as I’m concerned, though, that revelation teaches plainly that there is great (even eternal) value in the creations of Milton, Mozart, or Meryl Streep. Excellence is to be sought after; it is up to each of us to decide whether the latest American Idol CD or Thomas Kinkade painting fits that description.
Perhaps we hear so much about the potential evils of the media (and rightly so, I’m sure) that we lose sight of the importance of finding those things that are of real worth. There is a great deal out there that we have not yet seen, heard, read, or watched by which we can be uplifted and from which we can learn a great deal.
In the meantime, those of us with a propensity to do so can keep our complaining at bay. The fact is there were no “good ol’ days.” The natural man has always been drawn to whatever is fast, cheap, and easy and the current box office or bookselling trends are no exception. We do, however, have just cause to hope for the future. And hope leads to action for all of us.