The Role of Entertainment In A Society

There is hardly anyone around us who would not like to be entertained. It's an age old way of releasing stress and tensions caused by every day (sometimes mundane) working and making a living. Ceaser was perhaps one of the earliest leaders to use entertainment to divert people's attention from the short comings of the empire. In the old days, there was no mass media outlet that could be used for this purpose. So, he built the Coliseum. The form of entertainment presented at the Coliseum was not unlike much of what we see today on our cable channels. I am talking about sheer violence, and sometimes deadly acts that are committed during these so called entertaining contests, such as "street fighting," or the WWF's "cage fighting," where the contestants cannot exit the ring, even for a moment, to take a breath or change the momentum. As for the news stories, we should really ask ourselves; Why are we bombarded with forced newscasts about celebrities, and gossips related to the celebrities? Is it really necessary? Is it just another way to distract people from what is really taking place in the world? Of course, I am not suggesting that these things should be eliminated altogether. However, what I am saying is that the importance given to stories such as Paris Hilton's driving offence or Mel Gibson's rant at a Jewish officer or the poor Tiger Woods' infidelity should take only a short moment to present, rather than taking time away from the bigger news stories. When a high ranking Government official states that "We are the new Rome," ( I believe it was Pearl who said it) it makes me see the relationship between "entertaining people" and omitting the truth in every day affairs of our Government. We do have the best political system in the world, but it requires a steadfast oversight and "free from distraction" news to stay that way. Sometimes, when I hear a news guy saying this is the "official version" of an event, I remember the Lusitania story of the WWI and the Bay of Pigs incident launched by the CIA against Fidel Castro's regime, and the nice story about the Gulf of Tunkin in Vietnam. These stories were seemingly "official," which later turned out to be planned propaganda, Though not clarified in the same words. So, it is like the buyer beware kind of thing you know, when it comes to entertainment.