“This world is spiritually very, very dangerous. It is only because addiction has become the ‘new normal’ that so many are oblivious to its siren song of seduction.” ~ Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
via Roads from Emmaus.
These days, I think of this nearly any time I look at an advertisement. Every thing around us seems to be preaching its own gospel, its own “good news.” This morning, while getting ready for work, I glanced at the back of my Old Spice ”Afterhours” deoderant. It quipped: “Drag races. Pillow fights. Never forget the most awesome things in the world happen at night.”
Beyond the asinine implication that nothing really worthwhile happens during the day – with sunshine and light and warmth – it occurred to me that the examples the ad uses as evidence for the strength of its product don’t actually even fall into the category of “night activities.” Any drag race I’ve ever seen has been filmed and aired in the day. Pillow fights are by no means restricted to night, just as food fights aren’t restricted to day.
So the ad uses a flawed argument. So what? It’s just an ad. And perhaps there isn’t actually a “what” to all of this, as this is clearly a silly thing to get excited about. The point is this: we are fatally complacent, willing to buy just about anything, lace our bodies with it, buy into the image it helps us to create for ourselves. Listen to anything it tells us. Ignore the blatant falsehoods it puts off as gospel truth. In so doing, we stare longer and harder into the still pool while our hearts waste away without help.
