an wild, overgrown and overshadowed by my various loves,ö (p. 31). Pleasure, fame, sexual conquest, and other offerings in society and on TV are considered very disadvantageous to Augustine, because he believed they keep one from the contemplative life which is the only life that leads the individual through the darkness of existence to glimpse some measure of God. As Dare (et al., 1998) maintains, ôGod created humans by giving their bodies souls through which to grasp a foggy scene of His eternal beauty and goodness. Such vision can only be accomplished in the contemplative life, where all distractions are eliminated,ö (p. 69). It is only in such a state that one can find the realization of happiness in life. As such, TV would be considered highly distracting and disadvantageous to Augustine as a means of achieving the ôgood life.ö
Since a handful of wealthy elites own most of the television networks and control programming in U.S. television, it is highly likely that Marx would see this much TV viewing as indicative that television, in a secular society, had replaced religion as the opiate of the masses. Marx would therefore consider so much television viewing to be highly disadvantageous, because it keeps the proletariat class pacified instead of inciting them to rebel against the owners of the means of production. While Marx might view documentary programs on rebellions by the working class as useful to the proletariat, he would view most of the distracting entertainment pushed by television as a disadvantageous and guiding workers away from a chance at the good life because it would pacify them instead of incite them. In capitalism, Marx saw a system of economic and social organization that created and maintained a small group of eli
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