A Reflection From Thoreau: The Media and Our Minds

Pastoral Reflection: Media and our Minds

 “We should be careful, Thoreau once warned, “to treat our minds as innocent and ingenuous children whose guardians we are- and to be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust upon their attention…

Every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear and tear it… to deepen its ruts, which, as in the streets of Pompeii, evince how much it has been used. How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better known them.”

Recently, there has been much made of how the media, and the freedom of speech and expression impacts the lives of children and adults.

Some examples are: flag exhibits, hate radio, lack of enough children’s TV programming vs. violent video games, the availability of bomb construction via the Internet, the lack of civility in culture, and the coarseness of everyday advertising and language.

These and other issues ask us to examine and evaluate just what kinds of communication are best to allow or what kinds of language, ideas, and expression can serve to create or destroy the social dialogue and direct the moral compass that best guides our society.

Thoreau would weigh into this discussion on the side of prudence, and recommend engaging in dialogue that inspires, and does not demean human dignity or cheapen self-worth. He states, “As you see, so at length, will you say.

” Do our perceptions dictate our reality?

If so, then what are we feeding to one another in our homes, churches, schools, etc., that encourages virtue and values, altruism, idealism, and the willingness “to love your neighbor as yourself?”

While the freedoms to say and do are vitally important, has this generation confused the implied responsibilities for those freedoms with the opportunities for amoral license?

Ask yourself to ponder this question, and reflect on Thoreau’s words for us today.