The second directive that God issued Moses on Mount Sinai, and one that I take seriously, reads ‘You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.’ Oh how money changes the ballgame. Last year, over 36 million people tuned in to worship their ‘American Idol,’ a popular television show unabashedly idolatrous in name and form.
For this shameful improvidence we are and will continue to be paying the price for generations. ‘For I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.’ For our idolatry, His righteousness has seen fit to punish us with mass dumbification of our culture.
Religious nonsense aside, there may be no greater barometer of the public psychosis than the popularity of ‘American Idol.’ In 2004, Season Three of the show had a total of around 360 million votes, compared with the 123 million cast for president that year. By 2006, the seasonal votes were up to 580 million, with nearly 64 million cast in the final episode alone!
Needless to say, such a fascination reflects poorly on the level of discourse in society. Marxists used to say that ‘religion is the opiate of the masses,’ but I’ll bet that Jesus would go back to the cross to get 41 million viewers’mdash;the number that tuned in for the first episode of this year’s ‘American Idol.’
To be sure, in modern secular society, passive entertainment has largely replaced Jesus as the principal substitute for thought. Time spent on the recliner watching unrealistically attractive people croon Aerosmith (not to mention more time spent listening to ‘analysis’ of the show by ‘Extra’ at a later date) is time not spent engaging others, discussing meaningful issues or, indeed, thinking at all.
Now, it can be noted that this form of escapism is a byproduct of the privilege of Americans, whose luxury relieves them of the need to take an active part in political matters. After all, everyone knows that Americans are by and large lazy, complacent and living in a dream world.
But, as with every other worthless invention that our confounded culture churns out, our poison is spreading. While it should come as no surprise that our ‘American Idol’ is a spin-off of the British show ‘Pop Idol,’ many will be shocked to learn how far this madness has already gone globally. West Africa, Vietnam, Latin America, Turkey, Armenia, Malaysia and the Arab World all have their own versions of this pestilence.
Cultural imperialism takes many forms; in this case it is affecting the upper classes, the ones with television sets, in these regions of the world. Through the ‘idol’ hysteria, we are teaching them how to be as decadent as we are, only without the wonderland of luxury to accompany it.
A perfunctory glance at the Arab World reveals globalization’s military and cultural imperialism working in tandem. On the one hand, the West has given the region bombing and torture, death and destruction. On the flip side, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation now airs ‘Star Academy,’ an Arabic spin-off of the ‘Idol’ phenomenon that features performers from across the Arab World.
Current reports from CNN and elsewhere have drawn attention to ‘Star Academy’ because Shada Hassoon, the most recent winner, is a Moroccan-born Iraqi. Hailed as ‘the daughter of the Euphrates,’ Hassoon is putatively a uniting force in Iraq, bringing Sunni and Shi’ite together to cheer on their fellow Iraqi.
Even at face value, this fairy tale looks ridiculous. If it didn’t come hot off the pen of some Western journalists auditioning for a spot in the ‘No Spin Zone,’ they’re kicking themselves for being beat to the punch. Of course, I make no pretense of knowing the dynamics on the ground in Iraq, but even a basic understanding belies the image of Iraqis, Sunni or Shi’ite, discarding their weapons to hold hands for a rendition of ‘Baghdad Wal Chouarra.’ It’s simply a case of the West spreading its cultural affinity for substituting meaningless entertainment for intelligent discourse, fantasy for reality.
It’s bad enough that the ‘American Idol’ view of the world has stupefied a large part of the American public, rendering critical debate on policy matters to a perhaps unprecedented minimum (I wonder if it would take Paula Abdul or Simon Cowell being arrested for many Americans to begin voicing opposition to the Patriot Act). But now this self-destructive plague is possibly spreading to parts of the world that certainly can’t afford it. It is cultural imperialism at its nadir. The ‘idol’ whirlwind may not be an affront to God, but it is absolutely an affront to rational debate and intelligent communication. It must be stopped!