We have ignored the Jewish inwardness
of the individual Jew and his individual
family. We have dismissed his wanderings
into spiritual experience in EST, Scien-
tology, Transcendental Meditation, Arica,
as some idiosyncratic expression. But
there is a cry for attention here. "Don't tell
me what I can do for Judaism — tell me
what Judaism can do for me. Don't tell me
what I can do for the synagogue, tell me
what the synagogue can do for me. Don't
tell me what Jewish tradition can do for me
— in my existential aloneness, in my
disillusionment, in the weightlessness of
my life, and the barrenness of my family."
Public Jews are spiritually unsupported.
Even in their private castles they are over-
whelmed by a mass culture that has
penetrated the walls. 'Television is the
paradigm of that culture. It is the major
educational medium and message shared
intergenerationally by the entire family.
Taken seriouly, it represents a serious
challenge to Jewish values.
Big Brother has invaded the sanctuary
of the home. Not that Big Brother is
watching the family. The family is watch-
ing Big Brother. Ninety-eight percent of
American homes own television sets, a
higher percentage than have indoor plumb-
ing. The average American household
watches television seven hours a day,
teenagers eight hours a day. Children
spend fifteen hundred hours each year
watching TV — more than attending
school or any action except sleeping. If you
are forty years old, you have seen one
million TV commercials, and before you
reach your sixty-fifth birthday, you will see
another million commercials. Such are the
gifts of longevity.
Complain to Marshall McLuhan that
there is nothing serious on TV, he would
reply, "Nonsense, there are commercials."
Commercials are serious. What we sub-
liminally absorb is more than cars and
deodorants. Through commercials we in-
gest values, an understanding of self and
the world, a folk theology.
The debate over the cause or effect of
television is poorly framed. 'Television
doesn't affect culture or reflect culture.
Television is culture. "Culture," Einstein
said, "is what remains after you've forgot-
ten everything you learned in school."
The ethos of the commercial culture
teaches our children that owning certain
commodities gives you grace and ele-
gance, gains you favor, esteem, or love, but
not owning them will bring about a crisis
in your life. When Catherine Deneuve
purrs, "Of course it's expensive, but I
deserve it," more than an advertising
30
FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1992
Internal Conversion
Television is no diversion,
television is more than the
babysitter, television has
become the true parent.
message is brought home.
The commercial preaches a powerful
moral lesson in hedonism. My value is ex-
pressed in the perfume or clothes I wear
or the money I spend on myself. There is
no need to transform yourself or to strug-
gle with the environment. Salvation is as
fast as a purchase. It is found in things
bought, possessed, or used.
Television indoctrinates our children
with heroes and role models. In a study
conducted by the Electronic Learning
Laboratory at Columbia University's
'leachers College, high school students
asked to name some role models chose TV
characters more often than any other fic-
tional or real figure. Clint Eastwood and
Sylvester Stallone. Rambo and Dirty
Harry present a heroism that has the
character and competence to handle the
real world.
'Television is no diversion, television is
more than the babysitter, television has
become the true parent.
What has mass culture to do with
Judaism and the Jewish future at the dawn
of a new century? Why not speak about the
challenges without? The challenges of
Christianity or Islam or the cults or
atheism or community ideology?
Because the Kulturkampf, the daily bat-
tle of culture, is not so high-blown. It is not
fought over theological doctrines. I hear it
in my conversations with the couples who
come to see me about their contemplated
mixed marriages. They are either ignorant
of or indifferent to the theological dif-
ferences between Christianity and Juda-
ism. They stand in the naked public square,
religiously neither/nor. As the Yiddish quip
has it, they are akin to the celebrated cross-
breed of a hen and a rabbit, "nisht a hen
un nisht a hin."
The conflicts are not with great religions
or the missionizing of our children. But
over the internal conversion of the home in-
to the vulgarity of narcissim, hedonism,
materialism, the exploitation of sex and
violence that sponsors and sells along with
its merchandise, a style of life and values.
The surrender of the family to the sov-
ereignty of the television media is taking
place in the private domain. Jewish paren-
ting, the indispensable apparatus for
transmitting character, the refinement of
the spirit, is being surrendered to new
parents, the commercial manipulative
media. The family parlor room — called
parlor, parler, "to speak,' the room used
for conversation — is obsolete, replaced by
Oprah Winfrey and Geraldo Rivera.
Christian writers understand: Christiani-
ty is rooted in church, in its celebration of
the eucharist. Judaism is rooted in family.
The home is the substructure of Juda-
ism, and with its erosion, the superstruc-
tures of all Jewish agencies tremble:
federation center, synagogue, temple,
defense organization. Charity begins at
home, not in public relations rhetoric. The
love of Zion begins at home, not in pro-
paganda releases. Jewish theology begins
at home. Children have fears and doubts.
Children ask and wonder about God and
death and miracles. December is the sea-
son of Jewish claustrophobia, Santa
Claustrophobia. Children ask about Christ-
mas trees and mean more than "Why can't
we have Christmas trees?" They mean
"Why can't we be Christians?" Parents are
fearful, theologically bankrupt. And the
children are not answered by parents who
increasingly act as referral agents — "Ask
your teacher" or "Ask the rabbi" — wrong-
ly believing that others "can do it better."