When Vices Become Virtues

Last night we broke from our standard digital-free Sunday tradition and watched the Superbowl. Not being big on football, I used to watch it mainly for the commercials, but those days have passed. Now I pass through commercials like a 10-yr old passes through cemeteries on dark and foggy nights. With fear and trepidation.

What will my children see?

Sadly, more than they should have. A commercial overtly built on a theme of sexual bondage S&M–for cell phones, obviously. A woman getting horny with "Mr. Clean"–yeah, the household cleanser just tried to darken my soul. The best that could be said is that Mr. Clean was, apparently, her husband–helping around the house on stain-removal tasks. The tagline, however, must be noted: "Mr. Clean gets dirty."

A few years ago, in one memorable sequence along a highway, I noted three violations of the Ten Commandments in just two miles.
1. Something suggesting loose sex, the details of which are not necessary to recount here.
2. Tagline for some product being flogged: Creating neighbor envy for XX years
3. Tagline for some tough-guys movie being flogged: The Best Don't Rest

Today I flipped open a Dell computer catalog that came in the mail. And here came the motivation to finally just jot this ridiculous stuff down in a blog post.

GETTING LOST ISN'T THE PROBLEM. IT'S THE GOAL.

Wow. If that doesn't just capture how lost our society has gotten. So lost that being lost has become a desirable destination. Why? Because we're so lost, of course. If we weren't so lost, the notion of getting lost wouldn't be so tempting.

But we are lost. And when life gets that bad, escapism starts to look good.

A friend showed my his latest purchase a week or two ago. Oculus. Virtual reality. The game was of the shoot-em-up variety, but I'll be honest because I'm male and any adult with a pulse would know it without my saying it. I knew and I know where this will go. It won't be too long before quite realistic harem experiences will be available. A bit more time and they'll be able to add physical sensations to the visual cornucopia. A new temptation around the corner.

Why not get lost in a harem, after all?

Enough said, but even if we know to avoid virtual harems, the siren call of getting lost is still well-sold. My own smart-phone is a continual distraction to me, and much worse to many others.

For these reasons I was thankful to put down the Dell advertisement and pick up my latest Nouwen purchase: Reaching Out. Truth pours out on the page before me. "When, after a busy day, I am alone and free I have to fight the urge to make one more phone call, one more trip to the mailbox or one more visit to friends who will entertain me for the last few hours of the day. And when I think about the busy day I sometimes wonder if [what I did today] has, in fact, not become one big distraction-once in a while entertaining-but mostly preventing me from facing my lonely self which should be my first source of search and research."

Nouwen wrote that some thirty years ago. What would he have to say about our habits today? I can say this for him: if he checked his mailbox then as often as we checked our digital inboxes today, he'd have had no need for a gym membership.

Dry humor aside, Nouwen would never have made it far in the advertising world. He calls out our disease and hopes for himself and for us that we seek not more of it but rather the cure.

As to what that cure entails, I would suggest that Nouwen's book is a great start for those who care to know. As for me, I have some work distractions beckoning, so I will end this blog simply recognizing that my world has become so lost that the very notion of being found out is a worrying one to it.

PS—that advertisement about getting lost?

Yeah. It's for Dell Alienware computers. If alienation is the goal, it's only fitting that Alienware should get you there. We're an alien nation, indeed.