amusing ourselves

I happened to StumbleUpon some photos the other day of the Six Flags New Orleans amusement park. There was an eeriness to the pictures, not unlike what you might feel standing on the porch of an abandoned Victorian house—sort of "Addams Family-esque" feel.

But what struck me most was the irrelevance of it all. In my mind there was something of an "interesting, but so what?" feel to the whole thing—not at all the same feeling as I get when looking at the washed-out and abandoned homes left in the wake of Katrina. I was reminded of the story of a Ugandan bishop being taken on a tour of Disneyland. At the end of one particular ride (not to be named, but let us say that the main character in the story would be lost without his hat and whip), upon disembarking, the bishop turned to his host and asked, "And how, exactly, does this glorify Jesus?"

I love Disneyland, Six Flags and amusement parks in general. But looking at those photos of Six Flags NOLA brought a realization of the near-vacuity of a culture that is, as Neil Postman wrote in the mid-1980s, "amusing ourselves to death". I was struck particularly by the millions of dollars worth of equipment and structures simply lying around rusting into oblivion, and the incongruity of the graffiti sprayed in several places: "NOLA rising".

It is significant that there has been no effort at rehabilitation nor even clean-up since August 25, 2005. It is as if folks understand, almost unconsciously, the values-statement any such work would make. I assume that the Six Flags corporate office has realized that any attempt to rebuild while the real lives of thousands of residents and former residents of "NOLA" are still, six years after the fact, desperately impacted would be a profound act of hubris bordering on the inhuman. As it stands, it is a reminder of how much we expend on things that have no eternal value, and a statement of something that we really do not care to think about if we can at all avoid it: the notion that there is much we hold in high regard that, when the wheels come off, really do not amount to anything at all.

There is in me a certain gratification that Six Flags New Orleans lies abandoned and rusting away. I like the personal reminder that, when it all comes down to it, amusing myself for the sake of amusement not only doesn't add much to my life, but can in fact diminish it in some deep and profound ways. Paul said it this way:

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things [Philippians 4.8, ESV].