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EntertainingOurselvestoDeathChurchLifeJournal

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Published on March 4, 2016

Entertaining Ourselves to Death

writtenbyTimothyO'Malley

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n Morning Edition, Steve Inskeep interviewed Senator Marco Rubio about last
nights Republican debate. Like many political interviews, it included

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grandstanding in which Senator Rubio oered talking points rather than answering
questions. But, the substance of the interview was never really about Rubio: it was about
Trump. It was about Rubios insulting of Trump. It was about Rubios pledge to vote for
the Republican nominee, even if that was Trump. It was about Trumps vulgarity. Rubio
was trumped by Trump.
The present political climate in the United States reminds me of David Foster Wallaces
In6nite Jest. The American people in the person of Donald Trump have found The
Entertainment that we cannot pull our eyes away from. Our news organizations are
participating in this act of entertainment, since aer all, this is what we demand.
Everything comes back to Donald, whose campaign is innitely entertaining. We are
entertaining ourselves to death.One wonders if there is any way out of this present
political malaise. A way to rip ourselves away from The Entertainment of a campaign
devoid of substance, of intellectual inquiry, of even a modicum of human decency.
Perhaps, the Church has a role to play in re-building a political civilization of solidarity
in which the orientation is not toward self-aggrandizement but love.To a certain
degree, we need an asceticism in which both religious and secular Americans turn their
eyes away from the spectacle. For Catholics in particular, there needs to be a fasting
from the political circus unfolding in our midst. To watch the Republican debates right
now is to support The Entertainment. Like Alypius in The Confessions, maybe we think
that we can /oat above the fray, watching the circus of violence as a disinterested
observer. We cannot:
No longer was he the man who joined the crowd; he was now one of the crowd
he had joined, and a genuine companion of those who had led him there. What
more need be said? He watched, he shouted, he grew hot with excitement, he
carried away with him a madness that lured him back again not only in the
company of those by whom he had initially been dragged along but even before
them, dragging others (The Confessions VI.8.13).
Perhaps, it is our hatred of Trump (and his supporters) that will be our mortal blow.
Perhaps, it is a despondency relative to the political situation, one that confuses politics
for salvation. Perhaps, it is simply that we start to enjoy the circus, the violence, the raw
power grabs. We hope for more of the violence, more of the circus, more demise of our
civilization, hoping that all of reality becomes satire. We laugh, and we disintegrate.
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Of course, the goal as lay Catholics in particular is not to disengage from the world.
Rather, it is to participate authentically in social life, which may mean withdrawing
from the present way that political life unfolds. Our debates, our politics may be forms
of lies, falsehoods that are the result of a lust for domination. There are other ways to
view political engagement. As John XXIIIwrites inPacem in Terris:
Human society must primarily be considered something pertaining to the
spiritual. Through it, in the bright light of truth men [and women] should share
their knowledge, be able to exercise their rights and fulll their obligations, be
inspired to seek spiritual values, mutually derive genuine pleasure from beauty
of whatever order it be, always be readily disposed to pass on to others the best
of their own cultural heritage and eagerly strive to make their own the spiritual
achievement of others. These benets not only in/uence but at the same time
give aim and scope to all that has bearing on cultural expressions, economic and
social institutions, political movements and forms, laws, and all other structures
by which society is outwardly established and constantly developed (266).
Our political structures in the United States, our economic institutions, our universities
(including some of our Catholic ones) have ceased to understand the spiritual nature of
their vocation. Politics is not about power, about entertainment, about the creation of
security, about accessing vast quantities of wealth, of ascending rankings. It is about
making possible a spiritual existencefor a nation, for a state, for a local community.
The United States has forgotten this fact. And it is the role of the Church to make
possible at the local level a renewal of human society.
Maybe, in the end, this is what is meant by The Benedict Option. Not turning away
from the world in hatred, hoping to form an alternative utopia away from the hoi polloi.
The Benedict Option may instead be a time to invite Catholics and non-Catholics alike
to a detox program. A program in which we turn our eyes away from The
Entertainment and instead look upon truth, goodness, and beauty.
The Churchs schools, universities, hospitals, and parishes have a responsibility to rebuild a political culture of love, of solidarity, and of hope. Yet, the rst step may be
turning away from the very political culture that has created the monstrosity of a
campaign that we have grown to love.

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There is a better way. There is a way of love.

Youll nd this way of love, this work of solidarity at your parish soup supper, your sh
fry, your local Catholic Worker, a theology or political science or economics classroom
at your Catholic school.
But, we will not nd it in The Entertainment.
Featured Photo: Carole Raddato: CC BY2.0

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