Those of the church of Christ ought to live in an explicitly Christian way, but in the realm of entertainment there seems to be little to no difference between Christians and non-Christians. Reader, think of your own life. What do you do when you are truly free to do what you want to? What would your life consist of, if God only observed your rest and play? I do not intend to point out the obvious flaws of our culture here, although that has its place elsewhere. No, I only intend to draw attention to personal shortcomings. My own as well as yours.
If you’re like myself or like others with whom I’ve discussed leisure on campus, when (and if) you finish your schoolwork, you may find yourself surfing Instagram, YouTube, the news; or watching movies or playing video games. Right now, you’re probably thinking, “I’ve heard this all before; yes, none of these things are bad, but I probably need to look at my phone less.” If you stopped there, you’d miss my point. I’ve tried doing these things less, and that tactic doesn’t work because it misses the core of the problem. Entertainment itself is an aberration of leisure.
Yes, you heard that right. Just as worshiping Zeus or a fancy log is an aberration of the worship of the true God, entertainment is inherently a warping of a fundamental pursuit of humanity: leisure. To put it in Platonic terms, the virtuous pursuit of leisure can be corrupted from its ideal into any number of “entertainments,” until all of humanity goes helter-skelter into a carnival of cheap, empty happiness. This is no kill-joy talk, either. True leisure gives better, deeper pleasure than any entertainment can, just as a well-cooked steak is more satisfying than a McDonald’s hamburger. Anyone who picks that hamburger over a steak must either have bad taste, or not want to make the effort to enjoy good things.
We all know this cheap entertainment doesn’t really satisfy, and I’ll be the first to point a finger at myself. I’ve scrolled for hours on YouTube or the news, only to come to the end of it and wonder, “What have I done?” My time is gone, with nothing to show for it! In fact, there’s a feeling of deep-seated emptiness in that moment. But how is it that entertainment is fundamentally unwise, if not deeply wrong? To answer this, we must understand a little of what it means to be human.
In the Republic, Plato asserts that the human being can be divided into body and soul, and of the soul there are three parts: the mind, the will, and the appetite. Now, despite its imperfections, this understanding of the tripartite nature of man is nonetheless important, because to be fully human we must cultivate each part of our humanity. Here, in the loss of mind and will – to the glutting of the appetite – leisure is corrupted into entertainment.
C. S. Lewis writes his essay “Men Without Chests,” arguing that men in his time are either all mind or all appetite, but do not have the chest, or the will, to make them human. Similarly, entertainment engages man with only one aspect of his being, atrophying the rest. The usual error is mere engagement of appetite: watching R-rated movies for lust or blood-lust, or a mindless appetite for spectacle, even in rather tame action or superhero movies. Some of these appetites are already twisted and become more so in the twisting of leisure, while others are good but lessen the fullness of our human nature. Imagine watching Chopped every night! Enjoying good food is perfectly fine, but such entertainment can degrade man to mere appetite.
We were made for so much more. We need to be whole people, not beasts, not disembodied minds, not addicts to sappy romance comedies. Our culture of entertainment leaves us shallow in only one or two aspects of our full nature, as we scroll the web or indulge in lesser pleasures. Enjoy the true, the good, and the beautiful with the mind, heart, and appetite God has given you. Read Henry V instead of watching the next Marvel movie. Read Love’s Labors Lost instead of another generic rom-com. Read Twelfth Night and enjoy the wit of the writing. I jest, you don’t need to only read Shakespeare! Good leisure is more broad than that…but realize how broad Shakespeare himself is compared to the narrowness of this carnival of entertainment.
Entertainment turns a man into an animal; leisure turns a man into a better man. Leisure will uplift man in both body, mind, and soul, by filling him with more strength, knowledge, and virtue. Do not subject yourself to the corrupted leisures of YouTube or Instagram, which strip your soul of its full humanity.
You are body and soul. You are mind, will, and appetite.
You are human…so live as one.
