Not the Year 2000 computer glitch, but the year 2000 elections, when a conservative Republican defeated one liberal Democrat and replaced another. When George Bush won the election in November, 2000, the TV program West Wing acquired a terminal disease—the absence of reality. Their refusal to face reality was the death knell for their hit television program because it was never relevant after they went on with a show about a liberal Democrat president while the country had moved on to an entirely different experience.
It was irrelevant to conservative Republicans because they saw it for what it was, entertainers who didn’t have the guts to deal with reality, so they continued to create and market a TV show about a past that no longer existed or mattered. The Republicans were probably having too much fun to watch or to care until September 11, came along with a horror few of us could imagine. Conservative Republicans then had a new reality, but West Wing went right on pretending we had a liberal Democrat in the White House doing battle with conservative Republicans trying to bring him down.
It was irrelevant to conservative Democrats, who had been disenfranchised by their own party because they would hardly allow the voices of reason to even speak. Probably for them, after the election of George Bush, for whom many of them voted out of sheer desperation, and the whimpering defeat of their own party’s candidate, the meaningless TV show was probably just too painful for them to watch.
For the liberal Democrats who couldn’t bear to see the direction the country was going West Wing was heaven for an hour on Wednesday night. They could turn on their TV and pretend they hadn’t lost the election. But at the end of the hour even they had to admit it wasn’t real and they would go back to making excuses about why they lost the election. But there wasn’t enough of them to save The West Wing.
Conservative Independents like myself probably tried to watch it because it had been an entertaining look at the insides of government and politics, but with the country moving on and The West Wing TV show stuck in an outdated time warp, it just no longer had any interest.
And it didn’t have to be that way.
If the producers of The West Wing had had any guts, wisdom, or common sense, and if their goal had been creating a hit TV series about something close to reality, they would have finished out the year and into January with an election defeat and the agony of liberal Democrats turning the White House over to conservative Republicans. On the first Wednesday night in February they would have been back with a conservative Republican President and congress. If they could have pulled it off and been believable, their show would still have been relevant, it just wouldn’t (if it was done right) continue to be a tool to support the liberal views of the writers, producers and actors.
I would have loved to have seen them have the guts to bring in Mrs. James Garvel and ask her to be their conservative Republican advisor. If they had done that, giving her the authority to axe anything that wasn’t at least close to reality and if they had listened to her and really created a TV show about where the nation was living, they could still be going full blast today as a hit series.
I don’t know if the same actors, writers and producers would have been good enough to pull it off. I’m not sure they had the ability to pretend to be something they hated, but if they had been any good in their trades, they should have been able to do so, and the show could have run indefinitely. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Martin Sheen to really show his stuff as an actor, but either no one thought about it, or they rejected it because they wanted to keep on doing what they had always been doing with the result of achieving total irrelevance.
I’m sorry to see it go. I wish it could have been different. But since it wasn’t, I really won’t miss it because I stopped watching in the fall of 2000 when I tried to watch and found it so totally irrelevant I was bored out of my skull.
I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's my view, from Tanner Creek.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
Meeting God in the “Woodshed”
Day before yesterday as my wife and I walked on the canal in Indianapolis we approached a fellow talking loudly on a cell phone. I heard some choice words that should not be spoken aloud (or even thought) anywhere, but especially not in a public place.
Sometimes my lack of wisdom is exceeded only by my unlimited stupidity and I do things without considering the full consequences. Unfortunately, that was one of those times. As we walked rapidly past him, I said, “Hey, watch your language.”
I don’t know what I thought that would accomplish, but it certainly wasn’t successful. All I did was add to the foul language in the world, acquire some new names for myself and have my ancestry questioned rather loudly. I realize now I also could easily have gained some nasty bruises if he had decided to do what he was obviously thinking.
I did not recognize my own self-righteous behavior for what it was until several hours later. About four o’clock the next morning I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so, as is my custom, if I can’t sleep, I usually pray. Eventually I came to the time in my prayers when I pray for the lost. At that time I thought of the “cursing man” (So called because we weren’t properly introduced.) but by then I was listening to God instead of being stupid, and the Lord showed me that my self-righteous attitude had interfered with what he had wanted me to do, and was thus a greater sin than that man’s inappropriate language.
I was a child of God and professed to be a “Christ-one” or a Christian, but actually, I had not behaved at all like Christ. The Bible tells us when Jesus saw someone like that he had compassion for them because he saw they were lost, like sheep without a shepherd.” By contrast, when I heard him, I felt contempt because he cared so little for those around him.
I had to spend the next few minutes confessing my sin and asking God to change my self-righteous attitude. I also asked the Lord to help me, the next time I heard something like that, to feel compassion at the moment, rather than several hours later, after I saw my sin in the light of his righteousness. Finally, I prayed for that man and all others like him— asking God to save them and draw them to himself so they could experience his love and become the people their heavenly Father created them to be.
Then I also prayed for myself and all other misguided Christians, who try to do the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing conviction by using the devils tactic of condemnation. It doesn’t work. It never has worked and never will. We cannot accomplish the purposes of God by using the methods of Satan, because God’s methods are a part of his ministry. When we use Satan’s methods we can only do Satan’s work. If we want to do God’s work, we must use God’s methods. In a situation like this, Satan’s method is condemnation and God’s method is unconditional love. I know that! But I don’t always live what I know.
The good that came out of that experience was at least two fold and I hope three. First, by God’s grace, I didn’t get beaten to a pulp and cause that poor lost soul to wind up in prison for attacking a stupid old man. Secondly, probably for the rest of my life, when I pray for the lost, I will remember that man and others like him and, with compassion for their lostness, pray for their salvation. Because, by the grace of God I now love him. And it truly is by God’s grace. Because I dislike vile language, I have never felt unconditional love for those who use it in public. I have, in fact, always felt contempt. I have been totally unaware of my garbage attitude and have always (falsely, I now realize) felt morally superior. The final good I hope will come out of this experience is that God will help me feel compassion for people like that when I hear them, rather than several hours later after he has taken me to the woodshed.
You and I both know it did absolutely no good for me to say what I said. It had the opposite effect of what I thought I wanted, which was to reduce the world of language pollution. If I had used the wisdom and grace of God to just pray silently for him as I passed by, I would not have caused him to sin by inspiring more vile language, I would not have risked the safety of myself and my wife, and I might have been an instrument used of God, in some amazing way that only He fully understands, to bless someone instead of curse them.
I am fully aware, but often forget, that condemnation is a curse far worse than vile language.
I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's my view, from Tanner Creek.
Sometimes my lack of wisdom is exceeded only by my unlimited stupidity and I do things without considering the full consequences. Unfortunately, that was one of those times. As we walked rapidly past him, I said, “Hey, watch your language.”
I don’t know what I thought that would accomplish, but it certainly wasn’t successful. All I did was add to the foul language in the world, acquire some new names for myself and have my ancestry questioned rather loudly. I realize now I also could easily have gained some nasty bruises if he had decided to do what he was obviously thinking.
I did not recognize my own self-righteous behavior for what it was until several hours later. About four o’clock the next morning I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so, as is my custom, if I can’t sleep, I usually pray. Eventually I came to the time in my prayers when I pray for the lost. At that time I thought of the “cursing man” (So called because we weren’t properly introduced.) but by then I was listening to God instead of being stupid, and the Lord showed me that my self-righteous attitude had interfered with what he had wanted me to do, and was thus a greater sin than that man’s inappropriate language.
I was a child of God and professed to be a “Christ-one” or a Christian, but actually, I had not behaved at all like Christ. The Bible tells us when Jesus saw someone like that he had compassion for them because he saw they were lost, like sheep without a shepherd.” By contrast, when I heard him, I felt contempt because he cared so little for those around him.
I had to spend the next few minutes confessing my sin and asking God to change my self-righteous attitude. I also asked the Lord to help me, the next time I heard something like that, to feel compassion at the moment, rather than several hours later, after I saw my sin in the light of his righteousness. Finally, I prayed for that man and all others like him— asking God to save them and draw them to himself so they could experience his love and become the people their heavenly Father created them to be.
Then I also prayed for myself and all other misguided Christians, who try to do the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing conviction by using the devils tactic of condemnation. It doesn’t work. It never has worked and never will. We cannot accomplish the purposes of God by using the methods of Satan, because God’s methods are a part of his ministry. When we use Satan’s methods we can only do Satan’s work. If we want to do God’s work, we must use God’s methods. In a situation like this, Satan’s method is condemnation and God’s method is unconditional love. I know that! But I don’t always live what I know.
The good that came out of that experience was at least two fold and I hope three. First, by God’s grace, I didn’t get beaten to a pulp and cause that poor lost soul to wind up in prison for attacking a stupid old man. Secondly, probably for the rest of my life, when I pray for the lost, I will remember that man and others like him and, with compassion for their lostness, pray for their salvation. Because, by the grace of God I now love him. And it truly is by God’s grace. Because I dislike vile language, I have never felt unconditional love for those who use it in public. I have, in fact, always felt contempt. I have been totally unaware of my garbage attitude and have always (falsely, I now realize) felt morally superior. The final good I hope will come out of this experience is that God will help me feel compassion for people like that when I hear them, rather than several hours later after he has taken me to the woodshed.
You and I both know it did absolutely no good for me to say what I said. It had the opposite effect of what I thought I wanted, which was to reduce the world of language pollution. If I had used the wisdom and grace of God to just pray silently for him as I passed by, I would not have caused him to sin by inspiring more vile language, I would not have risked the safety of myself and my wife, and I might have been an instrument used of God, in some amazing way that only He fully understands, to bless someone instead of curse them.
I am fully aware, but often forget, that condemnation is a curse far worse than vile language.
I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's my view, from Tanner Creek.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
