They’re a Sunday School standard: The Seven Deadly Sins. Behaviors in which we’re never supposed to engage. Attributes we’re never supposed to exhibit. Big-time no-nos. Way beyond the humble faux pas.
But is it possible the mass media today tell us the Sins are actually desirable behavioral traits? Put another way, what do the media ask us, through the narratives they present, to believe about the Sins? I’m not a fan of “hypodermic” models of media effects, which suggest a numbed audience instantly impacted by the onslaught of information it receives. Still, the media can suggest what we should be thinking about. By paying a lot of attention to a person, place, or event, the media persuade us that they are, well, worth paying attention to.
So after resisting the temptation to put actor Charlie “Winning” Sheen at the top of each list, I compiled a few examples that support my point. Here goes (the sins are listed in alphabetical order):
Envy: This is right in the media’s wheelhouse. To survive, they must sell audience to advertisers; we have to be made to want the goods and the lifestyle they sell. In this world, you can’t be happy with who you are. It’s not a matter “of wanting what you’ve got,” to quote singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow in Soak Up The Sun. A constant state of envy theoretically keeps you coming back for more goods. It’s kind of like a self-help expert who tells you strike out on your own – seize the day, find your spirit, unleash your personal power – but demands that in doing so you return from time to time for advice. So we end up arranging the most outlandish wedding or making over our home to include granite counter tops, a dual vanity, and enough distance between we and our neighbors, in a house so large and garish it screws up property values. In preparation for the wedding all time, most women, suggest the media, turn into fire-breathing, overly pampered whiners who spend most of their time barking orders and spewing bleeped obscenities at the bridal party – all so they can have two-story terrarium centerpieces, a horse-drawn carriage to bring them to the church, and fireworks behind the altar designed to ignite when “I dos” are exchanged. Our desire to be envied purportedly extends to education, where we’re on our kids to attend the right schools as soon as they outgrow the bassinet. Parents frantically seek kindergarten slots given out with an eyedropper, as they teach their kids to begin their legacies with classroom and on-field/on-court excellence.
Gluttony: Small and medium need not apply, suggest the media. Our portions are “supersized.” There is no moderation anywhere. In any pursuit. Ever. Kids are savvy, aggressive consumers, supposedly demanding the latest and greatest goods from their parents during every trip to Target. It’s not enough for a sports fan to watch and enjoy one game at a time. Every second of every game in the fan’s cable or satellite package must be raptly viewed while wearing a foam finger and the face paint of a favorite team. We take vacations by checklist, exhaustedly following PBS travel guru Rick Steves around Europe or Ulan Bator ticking boxes and missing culture. Food Network hosts teach us to revel in the preparation of food, which we’re then supposed to devour ravenously. Check out the mastication skills of Guy Fieri, host of the network’s Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives sometime. He dissects the meal as he lovingly inhales, practically writhing with pleasure. There is little discussion of eating sensibly. And when you need to lose weight, it’s off to a boot camp with you, or to a casting call of The Biggest Loser where you’ll endure weeks of castigation and ridicule as you plot to overthrow your opposition.
Greed: Two words: Donald Trump. The media lavish buckets of attention on the man with the world’s most famous comb over. Every deal he makes, every property he acquires, every Scottish homeowner or elderly lady he tries to bounce from their land attracts the media, with particular zeal shown by NBC, which airs The Apprentice. And soon Dallas and its avaricious Ewings will be back on the air, and will avail themselves of investment advice dispensed by the e-Trade babies. Greed works, if by “works” we mean attracts the media’s attention. Peering longingly through the restaurant window, watching the rich gorge themselves, are moderation and self-sacrifice. It’s our duty as Americans to want more, to strive for more. After the 9-11 attacks, we were instructed to go shopping. Frugality is for Ralph Nader and aging hippies – that is unless you turn clipping coupons into your life’s work and end up on TLC’s Extreme Couponing. Perhaps the media’s most destructive tendency is to propagate the illusion that with hard work, a little luck, and your own reality show, wealth will be yours. As the overblown rhetoric surrounding the recent debt crisis reinforced yet again, the rich will not part with their wealth that easily.
Lust: Men act, women appear, wrote the English art critic and author John Berger. Today, in 2011, ask yourself: what roles do women play in most TV ads; what are they shown doing? Sure, the media exaggerate threats to our children like internet predators and “sexting,” but they do so only after (and while) sexualizing pretty much everyone, from Katie Perry and Lady Gaga to the Gossip Girls cast to Bratz dolls to coverage of women’s sports to young women – and men – in the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogs. It paints a picture of a society constantly on the make, looking to score – or “hook up.”
Pride: It’s no longer enough to be satisfied after a job well done or to simply enjoy a job or hobby. We have to tell someone – anyone, everyone – about every accomplishment, no matter how small. The media suggest we’re well versed in self-promotion, that we appear on the national radar screen only if we’ve successfully branded ourselves. So we put everything on YouTube and tweet about every waking thought and routine occurrence. It’s also not enough to just be good at something; we are taught to think of ourselves as stars – HGTV Design Stars or the next Food Network Star. Our kids get medals for coming in sixth place and A’s in every college class from professors scared to cross parents determined to squeeze the last dollar out of their children’s university experiences. We build legacies rather than live our lives, with guidance from celebrities searching for information about their ancestry in NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Sloth: Call this the “couch potato” sin. Apathy and carelessness are media highlighted – to this list, I would add a toxic sense of entitlement. Watch as the cast of Jersey Shore takes Italy by self-involved storm. Watch as the mainstream media tell us sites like TMZ.com are the devil incarnate, but then gleefully run its footage of another young star once again getting in trouble with the law. Listen to sports talk radio for another round of angry complaining about how much money athletes make with no acknowledgement of how short their careers are playing mainly for white men who make many times what they do. Read another report about disinterested young people who treat newspapers like artifacts unearthed by archeologists. They stare at their laptops and iPads, addicted to Facebook and Twiter, totally disinterested in politics or the world around them.
Wrath: Conflict is a media mainstay; movie producers and assignment editors prefer vividly drawn heroes and villains. We don’t get mad, we get even; we never compromise or allow for views to change. Parents of Little Leaguers attack coaches when their kids are benched. Adolescents, particularly those who have a lot of Marilyn Manson on their iPods, are “ticking time bombs,” according to Katie Couric. The debate over the debt ceiling was boiled down to a tussle between House Majority Leader John Boehner and President Obama, who had recently announced to the country that Osama Bin Laden – once “wanted dead or alive” by former President Bush – had been killed by a Navy Seal team. Strikes, particularly if the strikers’ demands are unpopular, are reduced by journalists to dueling signs and talking points. Members of the Tea Party are shown haranguing members of Congress during Town Hall meetings. Discussion, debate, consideration, peace – these are all for feckless wimps. Even yoga has become angry. The context in which crime occurs is rarely explored. We go after illegal immigrants even though their movement into the U.S. has slowed dramatically. Build a wall, show me your “papers please,” and end Sharia law in Oklahoma – and whatever you do, don’t let them build a mosque near Ground Zero.
So what are the sins in the narrative spun by the media? What attributes and behaviors aren’t cool or don’t get a lot of play? I propose this preliminary list: boredom (and its cousin, being boring; journalist Bernard Goldberg once called it the worst attribute one could exhibit in our society), calm (so long, Mister Rogers), acting casually, corniness, idleness, indecision, nuance, being poor (unless you have a tattered home in need of an Extreme Makeover), reflection (the genuine kind, not the self-involved prattle heard on Dr. Phil), subtlety, skepticism, and spontaneity (we are all witnesses to the demise in the media of the unscripted moment). In an age where everything seems to be over the top, a small dose of even some of these would be quite refreshing.
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