The Harm of
Entertainment Culture

The yacht moved slowly while people were busy eating and drinking. Here, I saw something that provided a good learning lesson. I noted that people were repeatedly bursting out into loud laughter. Meanwhile, I was sitting silently in a chair some distance away. So I asked a person from the group what these people were laughing about. He said that it was the practice of these ‘educated’ people to add a humorous phrase every time they said something, so that listeners would laugh. For instance, on the yacht, there was a famous chess player. Someone played a game of chess with him and lost. On this, a companion of his lightheartedly addressed him as ‘My defeated friend’. Listening to this, people burst out laughing.

It is a way of entertainment among the ‘educated’ people. Almost every point they make includes a quaint or unique statement that causes people to laugh. This ‘entertainment culture’ has become widespread in present times. However, my opinion is that this non-serious style has caused great havoc to ‘educated’ people. These people (based on their material interests and concerns) solemnly conduct themselves in their profession. Because of this, in the limited sphere of their profession, they appear to be knowledgeable. However, their intellectual development is significantly stunted in other aspects beyond their profession.

In my life, I have met a vast number of people. I have listened to them speak and have read their writings. I have found that most people in the present age possess a dual personality. In one aspect, they excel, but they do not excel in other aspects. The one aspect in which they excel is that with which their material interests are linked. In this domain, they are serious. They try to deeply understand things related to this particular sphere of their life. As a result, they become experts in this particular field.

However, besides this, there are other aspects of life with which these people’s material interests and concerns are not directly related. These people almost always take these other aspects very lightly. They rarely try to learn more about them. For this reason, their views on such matters are generally vague and lack clarity. On such matters, their minds are a jungle of confusion. If asked to speak on these issues, they will either say some childish things or something so seemingly complicated that the listener gains nothing from their words.

Another harmful aspect of this predicament is that such people often suffer from a false sense of confidence. As suggested earlier, such ‘educated’ people know their particular field very well and can speak on it with great expertise. It creates a false sense of confidence because of which when such people meet a person who can compensate for their lack of understanding of other aspects of life, they ignore what he says. They consider such a person unworthy of their attention and ignore him. A devastating result of this is that their process of learning stops. They remain ignorant of things beyond the narrow limits set by the issues that directly impinge on their material interests. It is as if they are material giants and intellectual or spiritual dwarfs.