"Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God. We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah's colorful language, the 'scarecrows in a cornfield' (10:5). They are portable and completely under the user's control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry."
- David F. Wells
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
I've been contemplating the way so many "voices" today tell us exactly what we are going to consume, which, I think, dictates to a large extent how we're going to behave in our daily lives. For many of us, we happily oblige the cultural voices with nary a second thought (me included).
The voices say, "Yes, you will ..."
- Own a television (we own two)
- Buy a $100 cable TV package
- Carry a cell phone (we own three)
- Upgrade your cell phone to a smart phone
- Buy a car on credit
- Purchase a house, and the bigger the better
- Subscribe to the Internet (we pay $75 for slow satellite Internet!)
- Live in the suburbs
- Consume genetically modified corn (it's in everything, even non-food items)
- Spend hours of your life watching mindless TV shows and playing mindless games
- View pornography, especially the "innocent," ambient stuff in checkout aisles
- Go to college
- Live on two incomes
Some of the aforementioned stuff is blatant sin, and some of it obviously isn't. Some of the stuff I mentioned is even desirable or profitable for our well-being. The common thread, I think, is most of us (again, me included) simply pop the cultural pill without asking why we're doing it, or what the effect might be on our spiritual and emotional well-being. Television, for example, changes us, whether we admit it or not. The boob tube changes our feelings, attitudes and actions, and if you don't think it does, then ask yourself why 20 or 30 percent of TV air time is spent showing commercials, or why advertisers choose to pay $3 million for 30 seconds of your attention during he Superbowl?
Think.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. -- Dr. Ian Malcom
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Comments on "Yes, You Will":
2. Mandi
- 05/18/2011 10:07 am CDT
An interesting thought related to this is how the people around you react if you refuse to live according to the cultural demands. For instance, my husband's car recently had some troubles and my sisters in law assumed we'd buy a new car rather than fix the one that is paid off, even though we cannot afford a new car right now. Another example is that I am a stay at home mom, and I take a lot of flak from my family about it. It's not "normal" to live on one income, therefore it's not good.
3. Karl
- 05/18/2011 10:46 am CDT
Great post. I've been influenced to a degree by C.S. Lewis's attitude against the notion of "progress" and even more so by the writings of Wendell Berry and his repeated call to count the cost of our technologies and perceived progress. But I still find myself checking "yes" to a bunch of things on your list.
The Myth of Progress
By Wendell Berry
The myth of progress substitutes infinite advance toward better and better life in the material sense for the old pilgrimage, which you make by effort and grace, to become a better person. That's the reason you need to subvert it if you can. It takes people's minds off the important things. It becomes a kind of determinism: All we have to do is just passively go along and things will get better and better, and we'll be happier and happier. That's why we need honest accounting.
What is the measure of progress? It is possible to measure the progress of the last 200 or 300 years in soil erosion. We can measure it in the rate of species extinction. We can measure it in pollution, in the toxicity of the world. Those things, like power and speed, are perfectly measurable.
But we need also to raise the questions that are not quantitative. How happy are people? What do we make of all this complaining? How healthy are people? How are love and beauty faring? What do we make of all this doctoring and medication that's going on all the time at such a great expense? That's not to deny that this so-called progress has given us things that are worth having. A hot bath every night is a good thing. I affirm that it is good, and wish to record my gratitude. There are other good things, but real harms also have been done.
4. nhe
- 05/18/2011 3:16 pm CDT
Except for live sports, we only watch TV via the DVR, so we can fast forward through the commercials........I can't tell you the last time I saw a commercial not associated with a ballgame.
The DVR/TiVo concept is great technology - especially with that added benefit of not being bombarded by commercials.
I also think that for those of us who have completely replaced our home and work phones with one cell phone - the advance in technology is positive - I used to pay for a home phone and a work phone, now I just pay for a cell phone, and with the money we save we can give our teenage kids each a phone so that we can keep track of them - that's a good thing.
I'm much more concerned about the texting epidemic, which has rendered our kids' generation pretty much unable to have a real conversation........also, the free access to porn on the internet is the biggest drawback to all of this that I see - but that's a whole different discussion.
5. Bobbi
- 05/19/2011 10:35 am CDT
In our family we have always gone against the flow. Must be in our genes. If they say you can't just eat one potato chip I just eat one to prove a point. When my kids had trouble paying their bills in college I said. "Do you have cable." After that they seemed to be able to pay their bills. Now my daughter wants to be self contained and live in a trailer. That was passed down from my father who wanted to live in a box car and then to my older brother who wanted to live in a motor home. We are strangers and aliens just passing through. We won't take any of this with us. Life is simple when the stuff you own doesn't own you!
6. G. Frederick
- 05/19/2011 6:05 pm CDT
@Bobbi, excellent! My youngest son and his wife are simply amazing in that way...I wish I could claim that it was because of me (the way I raised him) that makes him that way, but I think he is just smart and has his head and heart in the right place. I made more money in my first year in the real world after college than my dad did in his last year working and I had far more difficulty making ends meet as a single person than he ever did as a family man with 7 kids. I do however feel the same way you do Bobbi regarding making a point when commercials/culture tells me I should or will do a certain thing. I had a "discussion" with a coworker about that very thing (he is an artist and is trying to start a business selling his art on T-shirts). He was talking about how certain colors/images make people feel a certain thing whether they want to or not...I disagreed and gave him many examples of how, at least with me, that simply doesn't happen. I am aware of what I am "feeling" and I don't allow feeling to control my actions. If a commercial or whatever is supposed to make me hungry, that simply does not mean that I cannot make a conscious decision not to eat or buy something to eat, etc.
7. Milly
- 05/19/2011 8:34 pm CDT
-Upgrade your cell phone to a smart phone
- Buy a car on credit
-Live on two incomes
Not me. I have a cell phone that is a cell phone. I can get calls, make calls, and text.
I own my car. Paid in full and it's a nice one.
I'm it for the money. Okay the ex pays support.
I also have NO credit cards. If I can't pay for it in cash I don't need it. Credit card debt is stupid. Those of us that are paid to push credit on you nice folks are good at what we do and we are trained to tempt you.
Leave a Comment:
Well alright. I'll think...but only cause you told me to. ;)
We don't want to think the images affect us...but they really do. Funny thing. I started picking up "style" magazines to see what colors and styles would be good for my jewelry work... and "all of a sudden" my wardrobe needed updating...and my hair wasn't right...and I had increasing new shoe lust...and my obsession with maintaining my size was worse and worse... And ironically, my jewelry work dropped off because I wasn't feeling all that inspired. :p
Go fig. Buh-bye style magazines. And no more watching makeover shows either, for that matter.