Advertising, politics, entertainment: are we losing our grip on reality?
“Style is nothing without substance,” is the lofty assertion of a prominent drinks company. Perhaps they believe their own maxim, perhaps they simply think it will help sell more of their product, or maybe they just like the sound of it. Wittingly or unwittingly they are being ironic, for in this age of rapid movement style is everything, with substance coming in a poor second.
“You’ve got the look”, sang Prince in the 1980s, in what turned out to be a prophetic statement about the attitude of the age that dawned around the time of the new millennium – an age in which look, style and image have become sacrosanct, with less and less importance attached to substance.
Image-driven values
To my mind, the pre-eminence of image is having a detrimental affect on society. Society’s values are becoming more image-driven, truth is increasingly taking aback seat, and the images presented for public consumption are far removed from reality. Meanwhile, the greater prominence of the broadcast media adds further fuel to life in the fast lane, while the images en route are less and less wholesome and are impacting most on the vulnerable and the easily impressed. In truth, the word made flesh is quickly becoming a literal statement, far removed from the biblical reality, and skin deep is now a poor replacement for the whole truth.
“Truth is the first casualty of war.” When war begins and propaganda machines are called into action, truth can quickly fall victim to expediency. But truth need no longer fear a fatal shot in times of war alone. She is already under attack. The language of ‘spin’ has seen to that. Individual politicians, entire political parties and business concerns increasingly rely on the presentation of some captivating image or summary statement rather than dealing with the bare facts. A version most favourable to the presenter, be it the least damaging or the most flattering, is offered for public consumption. Stories are spun, figures are massaged and ordinary people are kept in the dark. It seems that the lively and often raucous debate that characterised politics in the past has been replaced by the tortured language of carefully crafted speeches. Political debate once characterised as cut-and-thrust could now be best described as mere fluff-and-dust.
Spin me a sound-bite
This dependence of politics on the power of image is leading to an increasingly confused and uncertain electorate. Gone, it seems, are the days of party manifestos presenting exciting, thoughtful and principled political aspirations. Instead we are treated to the mundane image of parties and politicians enslaved to sound bites, and we’re left wondering who or what to believe. It is ironic indeed that in an effort to be different from each other, parties are going to the same surveyors, getting similar results and then moving towards the same point along the political continuum. Where is the leadership? Where is the fresh initiative? Where is the real difference?
Sex, lies, & the truth that makes you free
“Sex sells” may be a cliché, but it is only so to the extent that it is true. Programme makers have extended the boundaries of sexual license (in response, they say, to a more tolerant society), while record companies are promoting more and more explicit songs. The image of sex, be it pictures on television or words and music, is being ritually abused, not just in the interests of carnal knowledge but also in the raw pursuit of filthy lucre. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything comes at a cost and the same society that is consuming the image is also paying a heavy price.
Does anybody really benefit from a week of binge-drinking and wanton sex as the images from television ptogrammes like Ibiza Uncovered would have us believe? Has anybody stopped to consider the grave physical and emotional consequences of this lifestyle? Yet these are the images streaming into homes throughout the ‘civilized’ world at an alarming rate. In the recent past the Church and her stalwarts (mainly clergy) were relentlessly accused of being obsessed with sex, and of rigidly enforcing the most conservative rules concerning sexual behaviour. Twenty-first century society, and especially proponents of the liberal agenda, have cast off the shackles and see sexual freedom as a mark of maturity. But it is truly ironic that in the process we may well be proving ourselves to be more obsessed with sex than any previous generation or section of society.
Following fashions
Promoters and believers frequently turn to the groundless concept of girl power to justify their involvement in this burgeoning industry of self-gratification. But girl power is not even a concept – it is simply another mindless image. Women have not been empowered one iota by this, and few feminists have been rushing to embrace it as a cause worth fighting for. Why? Because they see it as a sham that simply characterises females as objects of desire and exposes the consumer as slavishly following fashion.
“The truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). If the modern trend of reliance on image (sexual or otherwise) is a watering down of the whole truth, is it therefore also a denial of freedom? Is society quite literally captivated by shallow desire? Nobody would advocate a return to an era when young men were squirming in confessionals as they confessed to having bad thoughts, or young girls emerged red-faced having admitted to deep kissing. But there must be some middle ground where a firm grip on reality is retained. After all, human beings do have a propensity for failure. But they equally have the right to change – for the better.
This article was written by Niall Stapleton and first appeared in The Word, a publication of the Divine Word Missionaries. See www.theword.ie.
