Dark Light Plays Psychologist
One of the ways fundamentalist groups show just how radical they are is by playing expert in fields they have no expertise in.
Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair writes on Ohr Somayach’s front page:
Our age is unique in its inability to concentrate on anything for very long. We even have a medical name for it: ADD and ADD/HDD. Whether these conditions have always existed or whether they are specific to our age is debatable, however there is an unmistakable synchronicity between the acceleration of cutting rates in film and television and the upsurge of ADD syndrome.
Rabbi Sinclair did not bother to source this. Why not?
Of course, nothing would be fit for Dark Light without an over-the-top “them versus us” conclusion, with ONLY the haredi mentality as the positive and healthy one.
A person can relate to the present in one of two ways: as the most fleeting thing in existence, a will-o-the-wisp, an un-catchable frame in the movie of one’s life; or one can see the present as an unpolished diamond waiting to be turned into eternity.
The syntax of film, the language of our age, encourages the perception that the future and the past are not realities; all that exists is a constant stream of “now.”
From the Jewish view, however, success in life is measured by how much of the present we can turn into future before it becomes the past.
Leaving aside the silliness of this Manichean framing (and it is very silly, isn’t it?), Dark Light is lying. Dark Light does not seek to turn the present into the future…Dark Light, like many B’nai Torah fundamentalists, uses the present to mourn a past that was never a reality.
11 comments
Actually, they have something of a point. If you pay attention to the American mass media, we have something beyond a mere hype regarding ADD. It is apparently on the upswing, but while part of it is definitely the usual lack of anything interesting being said to the kids, part of it is definitely the mass media society we live in.
I came in at the dawn of the video game and recorder era and watched the changes, albeit slowly. Between environment, culture, and diet, we’re making a lot of very blink-blink minded kids and what it does to their development is make it very hard for them to learn concretely very in-depth subjects.
Concentration needs to be honed early on and I’ve seen that in our society less and less. Of course, there’s also an increasing negativity, a sense of can’t-do, being sold ever more that seems to be tied in to increasing incidence of depression and somewhat neurotic cynicism.
Thankfully, the Internet didn’t come around till I was already in my twenties and my grandmother taught me to read at 3. I learned the empowerment of books very quickly and used to read on a wide range of topics, mostly science, chemistry, engineering, and astrophysics, but also fantasy and science fiction.
I think one of the things that tells you whether kids only seem like they aren’t paying attention instead of actually really not, is that the ones who only seem to internalize what they are taught and file it away for later and can often be quizzed off the cuff and repeat back what you were saying as they stared out the window.
I find that a lot of kids today really are tuning you out and can only take in anything in snippets and the pattern is set very early on. There needs to be a better mix of activities than letting the boob tube and Internet babysit.
suitepotato,
To much TV for kids is pretty bad, and so is fast food. There are a lot of problems out there. But Big Aish published an article and referenced no studies or experts. Just some frummie who decided that TV maybe causing ADD sounded good to him. Does not work that way. Dark Light is sloppy. So sure…we can all agree that too much TV is bad for kids, but we should also all agree that Dark Light is still stupid.
Read Neil Postman if your interested in the connection between TV and add. His arguments are grossly inflammatory, but they connect the dots.
Real ADD has always existed, but when physical activity and physical labour were common, people didn’t notice so much. The vast figure of those students of mine “diagnosed” (this needs to be done by a psychiatrist or neurologist, not a psychologist or any kind of para-therapist) though are just young people that have never learnt to deal with boredom and have never been given the framework to creatively use time on their hands. Now, mankind’s always had an inclination to laziness, but back in the day, there wasn’t actually much spare time besides work. Now youths have got lots of time on their hands, and while I strongly oppose scheduling children’s free time, it’s an important part of parenting to also instruct children on how to productively spend their “idle” time.
this is just orthodox antitelevision propaganda. television can be a great medium for telling great stories and I do not need to be told by a faggot rabbi that i’m a bad jew for watching my favorite shows.
this is just orthodox antitelevision propaganda. television can be a great medium for telling great stories and I do not need to be told by a faggot rabbi that i’m a bad jew for watching my favorite shows.
suitepotato,
While I agree with you, I’d add that the Hareidi model is to force young boys to sit still for long hours, memorizing “Toyrah”, with little if any opportunity to engage in physical activity, because that’s for the goyim. It’s hardly a healthy alternative, not to mention cruel.
Rav Kook wrote a great paper (I don’t think it was a responza) on the connection between physical activity and Torah living. He holds that not only are playing sports and working out not bittul zman (time wasted from learning Torah), but they are essential parts of living a Torah lifestyle. He even talks about the importance of a man having strong muscles in his back. That part really spoke to me because I feel the same way.
That’s why a lot of Religious Zionist yeshivot schedule long hikes and such every week on Thursday afternoons. It’s also why all the religious Zionist yeshivot have the cutest and best built boys.
I was surprised to learn that in many Haredi communities it is forbidden to even play with a ball for the simple reason that it’s too goysha.
There’s obviously huge divergences between the two Orthodox groups in Israel. Divergences that are often overlooked by secular Jews who just don’t like the Orthodox-period.
Halfsours, Jeff specifically noted a “haredi,” model so I know you aren’t talking to him.
I wasn’t talking to anyone specific. This particular comment was kind of a stream of consciousness actually.
Rav Kook was a rare man. I think it would be nearly impossible for someone like him to arise out of today’s black-hat Orthodoxy.
I was surprised to learn that in many Haredi communities it is forbidden to even play with a ball for the simple reason that it’s too goysha.
Puts me in mind of a story. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (I think) was in a Lubavitch (I think) yeshiva, and he and his friends were tossing a ball around, and the mashpiah or someone came out and yelled at them and told them to stop, because it was bittul zman, and they should be ashamed of themselves, goyische behavior, etc.
So Reb Zalman wrote the (then) Rebbe a letter, telling him how unfair it was and how he didn’t want to be in a yeshiva in which they wouldn’t even allow young men to engage in a little exercise. A friend told him not to send it, but he did it anyway, then, afterward, he became anxious – what if they threw him out, what would he tell his parents?
A couple of days later, they were standing around in the back yard, discussing Torah, because they weren’t allowed to play, when the mashpiah brought out the Rebbe (he was in a wheelchair by then), who was carrying a box in his lap. He was up on a porch, and when he got to the balcony, he reached in and began pulling out rubber balls and throwing them to the boys. Zalman said the mashpiah lunged to get one, too, because, you know, it was a blessing from the Rebbe.
None of this should be construed as approbation on my part of Chabad, because I just spent two days with my nephew listening to insane frumkeit delivered in heavily-inflected Yinglish, and I’m now trying to detox.
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