Entertained

I recall reading a Gore Vidal quote that went something like, “the main aspiration of the contemporary world is to be the best-entertained generation in history.”  And while I can’t find it online, I’ll nevertheless ascribe it to the late great curmudgeon and note that he opined this view well before the days of cellphones, YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.

If society’s highest goal was to be well-entertained before 2012, when Vidal died, then now, it’s that ambition on steroids; it seems all anyone cares about these days is the latest episodic series or viral video or blockbuster film; everywhere I look, I see people staring at their screens consuming content.

I suppose this is no different, at its core, than our hunter-gatherer ancestors observing their environments, taking in the latest sights and smells, but the fact that it’s material created by other humans for the entertainment of other humans seems to add a different wrinkle.  Vidal bemoaned the dearth of readers for the writer; he’d need not be worried about the plethora of viewers for the video content creator.

I think there’s something to be said for reducing our appetite for entertainment. If we can manage to make it through a bus ride or a doctor’s waiting room without turning to our phones for the latest installment of Whatever by Whomever, that might be a good thing.  At the very least, cultivating such a reduced craving for amusement could be beneficial to the political process; perhaps we’d become less swayed by candidates’ presentations and more attuned to their substance—assuming there is any substance there to be swayed by.

I’m not suggesting we should eschew entertainment altogether; surely, the artistic merit of such creative works counts among the finest of all human endeavors; I’d rather have us be known for Shakespeare, or even “Breaking Bad” than the atom bomb.

However, astute readers will recognize I’m doing my part here to keep the overall entertainment value in check