In recent years there appears to be a pervasive development within the entertainment culture. Shows are considered more artistic if they bring up provocative questions and fail to provide any answer or conclusion. As far as I can tell, this was not always so. My knowledge of older movies is tiny, to say the least, but I have seen an ethical standard inherent to the purpose of many movies. Such a standard was to be upheld, not diminished. I have watched 3 or 4 John Wayne movies in the past year or so and he rarely fails to honor women, be a man of his word, or uphold the law of the land—when he’s a law enforcer. Apparently, this has been cast by the wayside in favor of bringing up ethical issues and blurring (or throwing out) the standard. Take the recent season finale of 24 (one of my favorite shows).
Throughout the season the issue of saving lives as the “greater good” has been increasingly present. Tony was bad, but only pretended to be to accomplish the greater good. Then Jack broke Tony out of FBI in order preserve the greater good. Then a whirlwind of who’s good, who’s bad ensued, culminating in a very stressful scenario. Tony was a good guy turned bad, but then turned back to good, but actually bad, until this scene showed him to be somewhere in the middle. He was playing all sides the whole time to eventually get to the “kingpin” of evil-doers and avenge his wife, while simultaneously saving more lives at the end of the day. Such actions received Jack’s stern rebuke and climaxed when Jack stopped Tony from killing the “kingpin.” Tony screamed at Jack for stopping the justice that was to be reckoned and Jack was left to dwell on whether or not Tony was right (as were all of us viewers).
The next scene saw Jack and FBI’s Rene Walker talking through these things. In answering how one knows what is right, Jack gives a decent answer about making an oath and following the law—ultimately, keeping our word. Then, he concludes by stating that at the end of the day, “You have to do what you can live with.” Really?! What we can live with?! Jack Bauer apparently goes away from an objective standard of any sort and succumbs to the pagan notion of the autonomous “I”. In other words, Truth is not out there—which, for Christianity, means in our Sovereign Creator—but Truth is in us. We make Truth subject to the standards which best suit us. 24 has created a postmodern Jack Bauer…but it gets worse.
Past seasons have seen Jack struggling with living—he often wants to die. But now, as Jack lays on his death bed, he suddenly struggles with death. He wants peace from all his evil acts as he takes his last breaths. So he brings in an Islamic spiritual leader who sits next to him and says, “Let us pray together that we can forgive ourselves.” Forgive ourselves?! Why? When we are before God’s judgment seat will it really help us to say to God, “It’s OK God, I’ve forgiven myself”?
To finish it off, Kim Bauer comes in to see her Dad and save the day. Before she does so, however, the Islamic leader assures her, “He has found peace with himself,” apparently alluding to his self-forgiveness. And so, the last 10 minutes of 24 reveal that we must be able to live with ourselves, and when we fail to do so we can forgive ourselves in order to find ultimate peace. This philosophy rivals Buddhist enlightenment. It begins and ends with “I”. I make the rules…I follow in such a way that makes me feel good about myself…and I can find final peace in self-forgiveness. Where this leads in the next life is beside the point, for we must find inward peace in the present.
We live in an increasingly relativistic world and it should not shock us to see postmodernism reflected on secular TV shows. But I think what irks me so much is not necessarily the postmodernism…I expect that. Rather, it’s the coating of postmodernism in the vague religious notion of self-actualization that is so excruciating to watch. But it is really all over the place. Another show my wife and I enjoy watching is “The Biggest Loser.” In the show, contestants strive to lose weight over a 20 week period (or so) and whoever hasn’t been voted off the show and has lost the most weight wins. But what the trainers preach to those on the show is that it’s ultimately about finding yourself. It’s about feeling more content in our bodies and in ourselves to somehow attain the highest possible standard of living. Self-actualization is the greatest good.
Interestingly, 24 reveals that the greatest good that Jack Bauer fights for (saving lives) is not really good at all if people do not use there time on earth to accomplish the even greater good of self-actualization. For what Jack Bauer holds is that one must do what they feel, forgive themselves, and find inner peace to attain some sort of personal salvation. 24 doesn’t reveal, however, why the standard of the “bad guys” would then be considered evil. For they could do what they felt, forgive themselves, and even find inner peace while simply having a little different view of right and wrong than Jack Bauer’s. So if they’re self-actualized through the process of terrorism, what makes that evil? Can we tell them that they are wrong and fight against them?
It is sad to see the increasing drift from biblical standards of good and evil in entertainment. We ought to appreciate the artwork of older films for still upholding some sort of standard, in that they reflect the common grace of God in implanting a conscience in our hearts. The accommodation of postmodernism in entertainment has resulted in upholding of the “self” as the most precious thing on earth and self-actualization as the greatest good. Shows like 24 show this accommodation and reveal the importance of being drenched in the Word of God and surrounded by Bible-saturated believers so that we might not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2).
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