Speaking of Plato’s lament over the entertainment-addicted society of his time, Sayer’s writes:
..there is an ominous likeness between this age and ours. We too have audiences and critics and newspapers assessing every play and book and novel in terms of its entertainment value, and a whole generation of young men and women who dream over novels and wallow in daydreaming at the cinema, and who seemed to be in a fair way of doping themselves into complete irresponsibility over the conduct of life until war came, as it did to Greece, to jerk them back to reality. Greek civilization was destroyed; ours is not yet destroyed. But it may be well to remember Plato’s warning:
“If you receive the pleasure-seasoned muse, pleasure and pain will be kings in your city instead of law and agreed principles”
-Dorothy Sayers, Toward a Christian Esthetic