Yesterday, I head the following interchange on Fox FM. It was in regard to a segment they call 'Gotcha' where people are set up and harrassed, only to be told at the end it was all a setup to publically humiliate them.

PRESENTER "Well.. we now have even CHIDREN getting in on the Gotcha segments"

"lets goto a caller and see how it worked"

CALLER "Yes...my 2 year old has really got into the swing of it.. now he wanders around saying 'I am a w_anker' "

You would have had to hear the full interchange to gain a proper sense of just how unbelievably pEurile,sick and degrading this whole thing was. The undermining effect is staggering. Not just the mentality which sees 2 yr old children calling themselves 'W_ankers' but the value of respecting others.. where people are called and promised $20,000 if they are selected to star in a promotional video.. but they have to give the presenter a 'sense of their voice' first to see if they are suitable. The caller is told they are very good looking etc prior to this.

The presenter then gives the caller some words to say which are supposed to be in Korean. "Eye.. Yumma...Wang....Ker"

Then they called hotels while impersonating "Bachelor of the Year" wasting staff time by trying to gain financial concessions if they visit the hotel.

The whole collective impact of the show was this:

"It just does not matter how much you degrage, humilate, annoy or harrass people...if it makes 'good radio' then its cool"

I can almost hear the varied responses, specially from the post modernists "But thats just your opinion".

Indeed it is. But the very potential for such a response demonstrates my point. If we have to attribute every statement on moral values to 'thats your opinion' we have actually arrived at the very bottom, and along with the opportunistic bottom feeders at Fox FM we will emerge covered in the stinking slime and mud of our own cultural suicide.

For once I actually agree with you Boaz,

I gave up listening to such radio stations long ago. Just as I now steer clear of commercial TV stations which contain just as much rubbish.

However, I don’t see the problem as a “morality” issue. More as one of who controls the media and why do they insist on promoting such puerile nonsense.

Bread and circuses.

Dear Tao...ur quite right, it does indeed get back to those who control the media.

My major problem with relative morality is that we all know our own selves. We know what is the line of least resistance.. we all know its sex and thats why it sells. In a way its like kicking a bloke when he is down. Or..offering food to a starving person. They don't care where it came from, they just know it will satisfy a craving.

The worst thing is, the sex or voyeristic thrill they promote is not the fulfilling kind, but the opportunistic, selfish, momentary, existential kind. Then these teenagers become PARENTS... what will they inculcate into their children ?

If one listens closely (heaven forbid) to most of this garbage, and scratch beneath the surface, its an overall message of 'permissiveness'.

Those who control the media.. the directors and shareholders, have identified a particular demographic, then the most likely basis on which to advance their cause, product promotion etc..and what 'values' to hook or link this to.

So, in promoting the values, they are promoting the products and shareholder value....but at what social cost ? Like termites eat everything but the paint.. it 'looks' normal, but then you just push it and it crumbles into dust.

I actually mean't to add a biblical perspective to my last post but ran out of room. I'm sure you can agree with the sentiments expressed even if you may not accept the underlying foundation (yet :)
From Pauls letter to the Philippians Chapter 4

[Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.]

Oh that we all could say such things about our own lives. Paul was certainly a hero of the faith.

Agree that’s puerile and unedifying, Boaz, but I reckon you’ve missed the real exemplars of the maxim:

"It just does not matter how much you degrade, humiliate, annoy or harass people...if it makes 'good radio' then its cool"

I’m thinking certain commercial talkback radio shock jocks.

I have to agree Snout... and to the extent that the likes of Alan Jones and company do this, it diminishes us all.

During the Cronulla period, I would much rather have heard about or read about a much less antagonistic and 'messianic' approach by such as he and ilk. If they did it purely out of true concern rather than salivating at the ratings bonanza, I'd be less cynical. But 'commercial' radio is just that..without 'ratings' ur dead.

I think the Rally would have gone ahead with big numbers even without Alan's method, and perhaps even there would have been less of the loony fringe who maybe just maybe were pushed over the edge toward violent confrontation by his method of commentary.

I am a great believer in the ability of truth to stand by itself. Even on the 'anti Islam' sites, they would do well to eject 80% of the emotive adjectives and simply plead the case on the evidence.

I feel like peuking each time I walk into a servo these days with the abundant array of outright pornography, the degrading filth which portrays women as sex objects, often sold by female servo attendants I guess.. each time we have to look aside from the filth we are selling, we are further hardened in our conciences.

I would love to have someone from the late 50s go for a wander around our current 'enlightened/liberal' society and voice a few opinions.
cheers

Boaz:

"I think the Rally would have gone ahead with big numbers even without Alan's method, and perhaps even there would have been less of the loony fringe who maybe just maybe were pushed over the edge toward violent confrontation by his method of commentary."

As I recall, wasn't Boaz gleefully cheering the "loony fringe" on during the Cronulla riots via his comments on On Line Opinion?

I agree with Tao - don't listen to such garbage on the radio if it offends you. You've noted yourself that they depend on ratings, and if enough listeners switch off, the radio station will amend its programming accordingly.

IMHO it has very little to do with "morality", and much to do with the marketing of objectionable ideas.

BD, another attempt to claim that your faith has the answers regarding morals/ethics etc while those of us who don't believe in your god are floundering along taking the world down the gurgler on the way.

I expect any examples of either biblical characters getting it really wrong (the man after gods heart etc) or contemporary christains getting it equally wrong will be met with the usual cop out about them being sinners and only god being perfect. The "Do as we say not as we do" coverage.

To bring the issue into focus please answer the following simple question.

What is the absolute not "made up as you go along" age of consent?

R0bert

Robert...thats quite a good question.

I don't think 'age of consent' was an issue in the Biblical times.
The only issue was 'marraige'.

There is no idea of 'age of consent to sex' outside of marraige in the Bible.

When the values framework is in place to support marraige and discourage promiscuity, the age is something to be judged by the community. My wifes parents were married when he was 14 and she 12, but in both cases, they preferred to muck around with friends and play rather than be mummies and daddies. That of course was an arranged marraige.

The Biblical teaching is not so much about age, but about values.

Do for others.....etc.... should be the guide in everything.

I think the main social problem re morality arises when someone steps outside of the main and accepted values framework of a society, because they did not find personal fulfillment within it, and then they seek to alter it to suit their own situation.

I don't think its true, but I am aware of a tradition that the Chinese foot binding idea came from an empress who was born with small feet and did not want to appear 'different' so she then ordered that all children have bound feet.... So, when people get that kind of idea "I don't accept society, so I'll try to change it for my own values" there is conflict.

I take the point that Christians are doing this all the time, but this leads us to the issue of 'right and wrong' and we say that we are simply trying to restore the most workable and God honouring values framework which has been lost by the 'progressive/liberal' departure from our core values.

'Age of consent' is a bit of a red herring. I don't claim the Bible tells us when to sneeze or how to tie our shoelaces.

We see a lot of this make-it-up-as-you-go syndrome with our police, and with policing in general (including departmental regulatory activities, local government bylaw regulation and so on).

It seems to me that this often wobbly subjective inconsistent law enforcement is a major aspect of immorality in our society.

Time and time again laws are made or are stated to apply, but are then not policed. The police (and other authorities) often turn a conscious blind eye to all sorts of illegal activities.

Over the years this sort of thing has come to disgust me greatly. I think it sits right at the core of our whole discipline/integrity/morality/social cohesion/respect for each other/etc/etc.

And yet, few people seem to be particularly concerned about it.