Here are a few minutes of video from a 1976 film series called, "How Should We Then Live?" featuring Francis Schaeffer. He makes a very basic point about the deceptive possibilities of television (and really all video technology), but I fear that many people today have not taken seriously what he warns of: media manipulation of facts.
If you want more (and you should), read the entire book of the same title, please. I have reviewed it at Denver Journal.
Benefits of life without television: see Jim Spiegel's entry.
ReplyDeleteI watched this very clip just the other night while looking for more information on Schaeffer. I happen to now be almost finished with the book. I'd be interested in your thoughts as to what you think will happen next. If Schaeffer and Alan Bloom were correct, western thought is drawing to a close as its society appears to be dissolving into the particles from which it was formed and literally committing a sort of suicide.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I had seen THIS clip from the movie Waking Life on YT a while back and in light of Schaeffer's book, was compelled to revisit it given the artistic nature in which the existential and pessimistic worldview Schaeffer discusses is presented. I'm sure you've heard of the movie, but if you haven't, it is I think, an illustration of Schaeffer's points on the hopelessness expressed in modern modern art.
I weekly edit video related to church services and have edited photos enough to know that pictures and video lie. I could make you believe that our Pastor preached to a crowd of 500 on any given service. When in actuality it may have been 100 people or less. Once you sit behind video editor a few times, you never trust video again. One thing you notice is the amount of cuts between shots. If you get access to long shots with little cuts, you get more context and less chance for manipulation.
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