The Seven Deadly Sins.
August 5, 2012
Question #79: Is our media, and in turn reality, teaching our kids that the only way to ‘succeed’, is by feeding our Deadly Sins?
I look around and I feel surrounded – like I’m in the middle of an old-fashioned, cowboy-style ambush.
* Greed * Lust * Wrath * Sloth * Gluttony * Envy * Pride – transgressions that I read are ‘fatal to spiritual progress’.
They’re everywhere.
WHY?
Yes, they’ve always been around. Of course. The Deadly Sins weren’t written a few years ago in a boardroom – they’re ancient.
I’ve always seen them as a warning – that to indulge in them would lead to chaos. Hell on Earth.
I don’t think we’re quite there yet.
But…
There is one society that is yielding to them more than others…and it’s our capitalist one.
While the majority of the planet wallows in poverty/war/despair of some sort (due to their rulers participating in some Deadly tastes of their own) – we basically live in a luxury that’s unfathomable and unattainable to them.
You’d think we’d be satisfied, wouldn’t you? And yet…according to studies, we are the most affluent we’ve ever been in history – but the most depressed.
Doesn’t this ring any alarm bells?
Our predominant drive? To make money.
Am I saying we shouldn’t? Absolutely not! I could always do with a little more – couldn’t we all? It IS the world we live in – we need it to survive here.
But at what price?
Our society’s hunger for more of everything and the latest of that, is giving me the uneasy feeling that we are starting to flirt with danger.
Not including the majority of ‘have-nots’ equally inhabiting this planet – we are spoilt. And we are few, in comparison to the big picture.
Yet we consume at a pace that is starting to become insatiable and is being bred into this generation of children and young adults.
So as the ‘line to cross’ has to move further behind to get an ‘edge’ on consumption – how is it done today?
By tapping into the taboo, the naughty, the violent, the lazy, the greedy, the depraved…then market it and SELL!
So, yes, I’m starting to feel boxed in by our media and how it’s becoming the teat from which our society suckles – predominantly a pornographic one.
The frustrating part is that I know that there are many, many of you who can see how things are travelling down a soul-less path, as I do; who are doing the very best they can with their children and share my frustration…
…but we’re obviously not enough. We are in the minority.
I can only look at the evidence before my eyes:
1. What I’m seeing in my daily life through (predominantly, but not exclusive to) TV and its ads, Internet, Magazines etc. etc. etc.
2. The choices our youth are making through their behaviour and appearance. Choices that make me question: Where are their parents in this equation?
Today I saw something that chilled me: A book being sold by Amazon (but has since been removed) giving a world guide to sex laws called,
Age of Consent: A Sex Tourists’ Guide
It claims:
“In some countries it is even illegal to have sex outside of marriage, with severe consequences if you are caught doing so! On the flip side, there are many countries on this planet where the age of consent is as low as 12 or 13…whilst one country has no age limit whatsoever! Before travelling, whether you are going as a backpacker, for business purposes, or as a sex tourist, you need to invest in this comprehensive guide to the age of consent laws in every country in the world! It will keep your fun legal!…This $3.49 will keep you out of jail, possibly the most important few dollars that any red blooded testosterone pumped traveller will spend.”
This utterly sickens me – because what I keep questioning is how did something as disgusting as this get printed in the first place? HOW?
Money.
Now, I won’t bore you with a list of how consumption is dancing with the Seven Deadly Sins – but it feels like we’re going down a slippery slope and picking up speed.
There is too much evidence.
How do we slow down this beast/machine, that’s bearing down on us?
Simple. Don’t buy into it!
Those Sins are in all of us – we all feel them at one stage or another…I know I ceratinly have…
Question #80: So why are we allowing them to take over?
The images throughout the post, are of the Seven Deadly Sins from a 2008 ImageFX competition. They uniquely connected with me – I can easily see how these are very present in our lives. The curious thing, however, is that when I looked for images on the Net – they predominantly featured women only. Interesting.
Deep Breath.
x
Questions for Us 
Paula,
Thank you for all of the insight! These things can be very overwhelming at times. It made me think of a comment I heard from a prominent lady just a couple of weeks ago. I happen to disagree with her totally, but she has A LOT of money. But she mentioned, essentially, that 3rd world countries will not become prosperous unless they start having the same kind of attitude we in developed countries have to sex and reproduction–that is, few children, promiscuous sex, abortion, etc. The entire time I was reading this article, I was thinking of the prosperity of the U.S. historically. It did not come by having fewer children. It came at the same time as what we now call the Baby Boom. The idea of population control came after our country was living in a lot of prosperity, after we had been enjoying luxury. In fact, it was the children of luxury that decided the extreme population control ideas were good. The same people who are prominent and wealthy today are still trying to enforce their vision of sex that came from the sexual revolution which largely led to the widespread acceptance of the exploitation of women and children. That is when people started making excuses to have less people in their lives while getting more and more stuff, even unto wasting everything and not think at all of posterity.
For instance, we are headed into a crisis because the Baby Boomers did not have enough children, so we don’t know how we can help them during their retirement. They have also made so many choices that have increased the debt so tremendously that I cannot see how the generation after the Baby Boomers will be able to recover. So, it seems to me that the theory of population control with a twisted view of sex will reap no rewards.
This is largely why I have trouble with some feminists. I have heard how they speak about people with less money. They pretty much think women from lower classes are dogs, so they need to be sterilized, not because they care about the women, but because they fear what these poor women do to their own wallets. It is not because they care about their health. It is about MONEY!
Your comment about our depression rates made me think of this. I think we need to change how we view sex, women, and so many other things, and you are so right. Where do we start?
Thank you for letting me go on….This must have been a very thought-provoking post:)
I really enjoyed those pictures, too. New to me.
LH
Wow. How fascinating! I love hearing different perspectives on how things come about.
I love your phrase,’the children of luxury’ – that’s it in a nutshell. And those ‘children’, who started to share that persepective decades ago, have now been given a hefty ‘leg-up’ by the birth of the Internet and its reach.
NOTHING is unattainable and this ability is feeding the monster at a gluttonous rate.
Money has changed the dynamic of our modern world. It’s so sad.
You are most welcome to ‘go on’ LH – anytime!
x
Definitely. The internet can help those misadventures expand unfortunately. It would be good if we could get a proper perspective of technology, too, so that we can use it to help people instead of hurt them.