R'Schiller On Corrupt Culture
the contrast between "classical poetry or great music" and "juniors CD
collection" is elitist nonsense. aesthetics -- artistic styles -- has no
moral component. it's what you DO with it, the messages you send. i'd
much rather have jewish kids listen to 21st century angsty rock-rap about
the pain and hope of getting through life, as opposed to some 17th century
european christian's paean to jesus.
Steg, you raise an interesting point which I have to consider further. The
point you raise is similar to the point raised by R'Allan Brill in his
"Judaism in Culture: Beyond the Bifurcation of Torah and Madda"
{http://www.edah.org/backend/JournalArticle/4_1_brill.pdf}. However, I
think we can both agree that particularly today there is an element of
popular culture that definitely promotes hedonistic behaviour. I do not
think R'Hirsch or R'Soloveitchik would have approved of the lyrics of
Eminem, 50cent or 2Pac. Yet, your point still is valid. The real question
is how today to incorporate the quality aspects Culture and Madda into
Orthodoxy without being corrupted. That challenge I think is highly
confronting in todays times, perhaps explaining why there has also been a
shift to the right in the "MO" world. Let me know your thoughts on this.
i think it has to do with teaching kids to be conscious consumers of
culture, as opposed to passive recipients of cultural messages -- even
within some of the artists you mentioned there are both negative and
positive messages; for examples, Eminem's song "Stan" about the perils of
hero worship and obsession, and 2pac's "Changes" about oppression and
poverty. What we need to do is teach ourselves and others how to 'pull a
R' Mei’ir', extracting the positive messages (and a-moral aesthetics) from
among the negative and/or immoral messages. Of course, that entails being
open to first experiences, in order to decide "this is good, i will
integrate this message" or "this is bad, i will avoid this artist" or even
"the message of this song doesn't fit my Torah-based ideals, but the
aesthetics are amazing; i will separate my appreciation for the artists'
skills from my rejection of their ideals". Some people. understandably, do
not want to be the 'tester', and prefer others to make the decisions for
them. I think though that as an integrated member of wider societies and
civilizations it's important as a general life skill to be able to evaluate
what's around us in order to perform "tokho akhal, qelipato zaraq".
Steg, are you aware that its ossur to put oneself in a makom sakanah?
Whats this business of going after things by total choice and extracting
only the good? Who says you shall be strong enough to do that? You can
never totally rid all of the cultural baggage that comes with all this
junk. Fact is, most of current goyishe music portrays messages totally
k'neged Jewish values and is bound to have some sort of impact on anyone
that listens to it.
i think a good answer is given by R' Jack Bieler <a href="http://www.loo
kstein.org/lookjed/read.php?f=1&i=15849&t=15834">here</a> on the
Lookjed Jewish Education listserv.