Buddhism, in part, is about asking questions to determine
how things really are. But to truly see the truth, you have to ask the right
questions. And the question on my mind at the moment is whether Honey Boo Boo
is foreshadowing the decline of civilization.
Homo say what? Honey Boo Boo?
A friend and former colleague examined this question in a recent column he wrote for The Morning Sun, a newspaper in Mount
Pleasant, Mich., and one I worked for in the past. Please take the time to read
it, as it is excellent. And don't feign ignorance with me; I know all you moes
out there know about Honey Boo Boo, because she is exactly the archetype and
stereotype of breeder culture that we love to throw so much shade over that it
becomes a black hole. And I bet many of you watched this train wreck of
humanity more than once.
Come to the light, children, there is still hope for you.
While I may sound a bit holier-than-though when I say
this, it is true: I have not, nor will I, watch Honey Boo Boo. I did watch an
online trailer for the show prior to its indecorous debut and that was enough.
I wanted to cleanse my eyes with Comet after that. I saw enough, however, to
know instantly that civilization was perched upon a perilous precipice, over
which it could tumble into oblivion at any moment.
My friend clearly points out in his column that we, in a
collective sense, have only ourselves to blame for this type of programming dreck.
He writes:
"You can blame the network all you want, but the
people who run the network have a very simple mission: Make money. They do that
by reducing costs and maximizing viewers. Quality costs money and doesn’t bring
the right number of viewers to make it the most profitable way to do business.
So, we get Honey Boo Boo.”
And to add insult to injury, the folks in TV land have
created elaborate methods to convince you that the programming available is, in
fact, high quality backed by tons of creative minds. It's done through the
annual awards show that lavishes praise on the most popular programs with idols
of pseudo-excellence, which is why programs like "Glee" churn out
episode after episode creating new nadirs for every conceivable sexual, racial,
and ethnic stereotype out there and cleverly confuses you into thinking that
it's really a ground-breaking and inclusive show portraying gays and others in
a positive, albeit humorous, light.
It's all a diversion designed to lull you into a false
sense of happiness so that you will more readily accept the commercial content that
batters your psyche with often better production quality than the programs it
sponsors. Its intent is to stupify you in a manner Bob Dylan eloquently
described in his song, "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)".
Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you
This is precisely why the Buddha advised a young fellow
named Sigala to avoid theatrical shows.
o_O
Patience my pretties. I think that a reason why many
practitioners do not read Dhamma is quite similar why other folk do not read
the Bible or whatever holy book guides their religion, and this is the language
in these texts is archaic and not easily understood. For that reason, it can be
easily viewed as irrelevant to today's culture.
For example, in the Sigalovada Sutta, the Buddha includes "watching theatrical shows" as an item
in a list of activities that lead to the loss of wealth. And then he enumerates
the reasons why and how watching theatrical shows result in this:
"There are, young householder, these six evil
consequences in frequenting theatrical shows. He is ever thinking:
(i) where is there dancing?
(ii) where is there singing?
(iii) where is there music?
(iv) where is there recitation?
(v) where is there playing with cymbals?
(vi) where is there pot-blowing?
Pot-blowing? What the hell is that? And what's wrong with
singing and dancing?
This is what I'm talking about. People look at this and
think that Buddhism has no relevance for them. The problem, however, is not
that Buddhism lacks relevance; the problem is the question - we aren't asking
the right questions.
No, there is nothing wrong with singing, or dancing, or
even pot-blowing, provided we don't get too carried away. Remember that the
Buddha described his path as the middle way. He tried the extremes and found
them lacking. The path to spiritual bliss is neither followed by extreme pleasure or by
extreme deprivation. And while we follow the way in the middle, we must be
honest in evaluating our emotions.
Remember what the First Noble Truth is? For many people,
life is more than just unsatisfactory, it can really suck, and too many of us
queer folk know this all too well. But for most people life is how Henry David
Thoreau described it when he said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation
and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
Believe it or not, shows like Honey Boo Boo are tapping
into a collective sense of dismay and dissatisfaction that permeates our lives.
It presents an opportunity, albeit a false one, for us to watch someone else's
life self-destruct and gives us a sense that things can't be all that bad,
"thank god I'm not in Honey Boo Boo's family!"
But like the theatrical shows the Buddha warned Sigala
about, this is a distraction that keeps us in our self-dug hole of
dissatisfaction. Shows like Honey Boo Boo aren't designed to uplift us, to
inspire us; they're designed to keep us in a rut of meaningless existence, to
set us up for the next string of commercials that will entice us to spend money
on goods and services we don't need and which, if we took just a few seconds to
think about it, we don't want.
There are a lot of unhappy people in the world. We can't help
them all. But are you at least trying to help a few of them?
I know that I am not. And that needs to change.
