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Today's
quotation:
Idolatry
is the denial of all hope for the future. The idols
of the past
were worshipped by people who were afraid of change,
who wanted
things to remain the same, who did not want a future
that was different,
who found their security in the status
quo. The same is true today.
Center of Concern
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Today's
Meditation:
It seems
that it's not a coincidence that we have a lack of
tolerance for diversity and change in our world today,
given the ways that our modern media have created an
incredible array of idols for us to worship-- from actors
to athletes to singers and even to politicians, these days
much of our economy is based on idol worship, on getting
people to be so enamored with personalities that they'll
buy anything featuring those people just to have it.
It's a frightening development in our world, but one that
doesn't have to keep on.
I
know people who know more about athletes than they know
about their own children or siblings or friends.
It's not at all uncommon for people to spend large amounts
of money buying jerseys just because they have athletes'
names on them, or make-up or clothing or perfume just because
it has an entertainer's name as a logo. The quality
of the product doesn't seem to matter much-- what's
important is the name of the person being idolized.
In politics, many people are less concerned with what a
politician actually does than what she or he says they
stand for-- if they stand for keeping what I believe should
be kept, then I'm all for them.
This
type of idolatry is harming us significantly. We
have fewer people who are willing to think for themselves,
and more people who blindly accept promises from people
who are lying, but who know what we want to hear. It
leads to division when one person idolizes someone that
another person dislikes, when someone insults a person
that I idolize, when our idols turn out to be different
people than we expect them to be. And it harms us
because it keeps us from thinking for ourselves and being
able to focus on things that truly matter in our lives,
like the people we love. Money that could go to our
children's education, for example, may go to buy that new
set of golf clubs with a particular golfer's name on it--
whether the clubs actually help our game or not.
We
live in a world in which advertisers know that if they can
get us to idolize individuals, they can also get us to
part with our money for overpriced products bearing that
person's name, and they can get us to watch any program or
movie or game involving that person or team, thus adding
more money to their coffers. If we want to truly
maintain our independence and freedom from their
influence, we must be fully aware of their techniques and
strategies. It is possible to admire someone and
enjoy what they do without idolizing them, and it behooves
us to do our best to do just that if we don't want to face
the possibility of having our thoughts and actions
controlled by the media.
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