It’s Monday evening and you need to              Tube – and that’s just scratching the surface.
        unwind. Sunday was busy and Mon-         Reality shows have reached an epidemic level
        day was a Monday. The assembly Bi-       and virtual worlds like “Second Life” replace
        ble study is not until Wednesday.        reality for the socially-challenged and depen-
        Right now you need a diversion;          dent world that anxiously awaits the latest
some “me-time,” “downtime,” just “chilling       and greatest offering. With high-speed inter-
out.” Regardless of the name you give it, ac-    net and 4g wireless, 24/7 connectivity is the
tivities outside your normal responsibilities    new standard and there is never a need to be
fall under the broad classification of enter-    “unplugged” from the world-wide-web of
tainment.                                        entertainment. The only constant is change,
Entertainment and its Reality                    and the only limitation is time. Everything is
                                                 at our fingertips, and attention spans are
   The ever-changing world around us is          shorter than ever.
driven by an insatiable thirst for entertain-
ment. What was once easily identifiable and         The economic principle of supply and
distinguishable as entertainment a few de-       demand demonstrates how the hunger of the
cades ago has now become impossible to sep-      depraved human heart for distraction and di-
arate from daily living. Hollywood, casinos,     version has given rise to entertainment that
and sporting events were entertainment.          defies both definition and description. It is so
Phones were for communication and stores         large and all-encompassing that traditional
were for shopping. But this has changed, and     measurements to gauge its scope are sorely
the pervasive entertainment industry has         inadequate. Recent innovation now allows
made its way into the very fiber of our exis-    individuals on opposite sides of the planet to
tence. A phone is now a media tool capable of    concurrently experience entertainment to-
streaming continuous on-line content. A          gether, creating the sensation of being physi-
store must now provide an entertaining shop-     cally present, but, in reality, being nothing
ping experience. Modern cars are bluetooth       more than virtual guests. The holographic
satellite-guided mini-theaters that do much      avatars that represent the participants create a
more than provide transportation. Entertain-     virtual world that seems more real than reality
ment is no longer a few hours laid aside         itself. No longer a segment of life, entertain-
weekly for leisure time, but rather the foun-    ment is the platform upon which life and liv-
dational block that undergirds modern exis-      ing are designed. Entertainment is king, vir-
tence, meeting the felt needs of an ever evolv-  tual reality is the new castle of the deceived
ing society bent on extracting more pleasure     world, and through it walks the believer in his
from every available second. Today’s offerings   pilgrim character, in the world we say, but not
include food, education and sports entertain-    of it. How shall we then live? Can we safely
ment, theatre and the arts, movies and viral     participate in the world’s entertainment?
videos, MySpace and FaceBook, MTV and
ESPN, Xbox and Playstation, iPods and You-          One of the largest entertainment provid-
                                                 ers is the world of sports and sporting events.