Become a wise consumer of culture

Josh Jackson, editor of Paste Magazine, recently wrote a short blurb on the search in our lives among the countless entertainment options.

"I think I may have a problem...With nearly every CD released coming through my office, most every film I want to see already in my Netflix queue and more magazine subscriptions than would be humanly possible to read, I’m never at a loss for some form of entertainment to fill the gaps in life. Even when I’m standing in line at the back, I’ve got a phone in my pocket with access to free games, YouTube videos and the rest of that wonderful composite of all the knowledge of recorded human history: the Internet. I’m in danger of, as Neil Postman put it, amusing myself to death.

It’s been 47 years and billions of entertainment options since that great ‘malaise’ Binx Bolling, in Walker’s Percy’s The Moviegoer, found more meaning and purpose in his trips to the cinema than in his own life. To counter that, he became enamored with the search--’To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.’ I like to think I’m on that search, and I find that books like The Moviegoer, as well as music, film, magazines--and even TV and video games--can illuminate the path ahead. But only if I’m vigilant about actually living, and separating the wheat from the chaff when I do stop to enjoy a piece of our culture.

...At Paste, we see it as our job to help you discover entertainment options pertinent to your search--not to serve as a replacement for your own story. I believe we were put on this earth to help redeem it. The best music, film and culture will do you no good if you’re buried under it. Become a wise consumer of culture. Or better yet, become a creator of it."

I've blogged before on why you check out Paste Magazine. Do it.