What's the Big Main Idea ???                    Home Page

STOICAL  STEVE'S  STORY

Assess your understanding of this passage 

       A person might treat a headache with an aspirin. But if within the next day or two the headache returns, the person needs to find the underlying cause of the headache. The headache, itself, is only a symptom. The amount of sex on television today is not the problem; the problem is deeper than that. Sex on television is merely an indication of the moral decay of our society. The decay is being caused by the love of money. It is a well-known adage that "the love of money is the root of all evil." This love of money is causing folks to ignore the responsibility they have to make a positive contribution to society so that the whole society benefits through the care we have for each other. We could remove all sex from television, but we would still be faced with many symptoms of moral decay – high divorce rate, high crime rate, wickedness in high places, lasciviousness, pride and deceit. All of these things have as their underlying cause, a love of money. 

        In our culture, everyone wants to make a fast buck instead of working hard and sharing what they have with others. Television producers and advertisers are getting rich because, as they say, "sex sells." All they have to do is show a half-naked woman, the product sells like hotcakes, and they get to pocket the proceeds. They do not care about the negative portrayal of their mothers and sisters; all they care about is "the bottom line" -- how much they can make because they love and want money.  Other segments of society also are profiting in the same manner -- stockbrokers, lawyers, corporations. In their own ways, each is cheating the people to get money.  Just look at all the insider trading going on, frivolous lawsuits and arrests of corporate executives.  Their passionate schemes to get quick money eventually go bad and we all suffer as a result, whether it's through higher prices at the cash register or loss of our pension funds.

        Our society would do well to learn a lesson from ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. They, too, were great civilizations with lavish living, enormous economies, erudite citizenries  and great political influence. But the onslaught of moral decay marked by greed, the breakdown of the family structure, and insatiable sexual appetites eventually plummeted them into the bowels of despair and led to the demise of their cultures. Sex on television is simply a reflection of similar activity in our culture.  All the money in the world will not be able to save our society if it falls apart because of moral decay.

Top of page