Bunch a' Sinners

All this talk of Easter and Passover has got me thinking about religion. Specifically, Jesus. I like Jesus. I imagine him to have been a brilliant philosopher who preached about equality in an unequal and hypocritical world. A lot of the issues he talked about still plague us today. But I don't really dig the idea that he died for my sins. I think that's quite an unfair statement actually. For one, I am not a sinner, I haven't really done anything wrong. The two times I went to confession, I invented things like "I was mean to my brother or my mother" which was total bs. Or, I swore -- it's true, I swore, but there's nothing wrong with swearing. Actually, lying in confession was probably my greatest sin. I know there are a lot of fucked up people out there who do shitty things, and maybe Jesus died for them but I don't put myself in that category. Also, if ever I do find myself sinning really badly, the only person responsible will be me. And if I really mess up, like break the law bad, then the only person who will deserve to go to jail will be me. There won't be a savior around to take my place. And guess what? That is what our justice system has taught us; we are, for the most part, responsible for our actions and we alone shall pay. Will I seek solace in others? Yes. Will I need to look to someone for guidance? Sure. Will I need lawyers? Damn straight. How about guns? yup. And money? You betcha. But that's about it. 

Just taking a wild guess, I think Jesus was a revolutionary and inspiring leader and thinker who pissed off some people and they killed him, end of story. Why we need to turn it into a whole sacrificial thing is beyond me. Was it to try to instill humility in people? "Look at what that man did for you, you assholes. What do you have to say for yourselves? Go to your rooms!" I guess we truly are God's children. His 7 year olds.

One of the (many) reasons I think our society has become more secular is that with the rise of individualism came the rise of the idea of self empowerment. Self empowerment teaches you that no one can take charge of your life like you can. You need to decide for yourself who you're going to be. You need to learn to accept, love and ultimately, save yourself; no one else will do that for you. As the wonderful Whitney Houston once sang "learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." Truth sister. That whole thing is about finding your inner strength, non attributed to other beings but yourself and your will power (if you believe in free will, a whole Pandora's box I just opened right there). 

Finally, if Jesus died for our sins thousands of years ago, he's since then been probably dying every single day in heaven because Lord knows, there ain't no shortage of sins up in this place. 

(I think I may have attempted to tackle some pretty controversial and complex ideas here in roughly two paragraphs).

Mona Lisas, Mad Hatters and Cadillacs

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. I raised my daughter in the American fashion but taught her never to dishonor her family. 

- Amerigo Bonasera, The Godfather

We know how that story ends. Amerigo asks Marlon Brando, aka the Godfather, to avenge his daughter's rape.

It's not unlike the story of this country really.

By now we've all seen the infamous Cadillac ELR ad. It's a hugely polarizing spot, which is every marketer's dream. It might resonate with its extremely small target audience but it turned off a lot of people. Who was the target audience? Everyone I spoke to said it wasn't them. I myself hated it. The guy makes me think of a less likable Patrick Bateman, the message is xenophobic, unAmerican and untrue. UnAmerican because it isn't like us to be critical of other nations in such an unfunny way, it's beneath us (and everyone knows that's France's job). Untrue because most people in this country live for Stuff, not work. And those who are poor work to survive... and for stuff. It's the stuff and the survival that money can buy that propels us to work. For a target audience that is supposedly so small, this ad makes sweeping generalizations about all Americans. It also ran incessantly on the Olympics, one of the most universally watched programs in, well, the universe. And while the Olympics are all about competing for one's country and trying to win a bunch of gold medals, they're also supposed to be about sportsmanship and the coming together of the best of the best from nations around the world... including France. Whether you believe that or not doesn't matter. So through the message and the medium, Cadillac is essentially speaking for and to all Americans while everyone I've talked to, wealthy or upper middle class, have raised up their hands and said, don't look at me, I ain't the target.  So far, the people I know who really like the ad are copywriters who wish they'd written it and people who really like America but claim not to be the target. Look, I understand that Cadillac has an American exceptionalism thing going on here and maybe they just want to stir up those old patriotic feelings, but in post-Occupy America, maybe their money would have been better spent on CNBC. 

On the flip side of all of this, my experience living among the elite of NYC and working alongside them is that they spend a lot of time trying to assuage their anxiety about their jobs, and therefore, their lives. People post life lesson quotes on Facebook, quotes photoshopped on pictures of sunsets preaching what is truly important in life (it's usually something like Love or Family), funny life-affirming quotes whose hidden messages come down to living your life with confidence or like you just don't care. All these mantras that we seem to love so much are basically just a way to remind ourselves of our imminent death, and so we might as well not live in fear because what's the point. We implore ourselves to slow down, or better yet, follow our dreams if we have them, and we all want to believe it, but we can't because we've created a societal monster whose nerve center is the act of being busy. We pray to the altar of Busy. Not Productivity mind you. Who created it? I guess it's the people the Cadillac ad is targeting (and the media. Let's just blame the media for everything). In a lot of ways, for someone like me who is lucky to be part of the system, it's great. I'd rather be part of a successful machine, than a broken one, I also happen to believe in hard work, much more so now than I used to. I actually don't care that much about going on vacation, what I do care about is freedom. But let's not kid ourselves about it then, if you want to get off the speeding train like all those mantras suggest, there is little recourse to do so and very little respect in doing so. And I see a lot of people around me for whom that is a deep desire. The vague reminder of living life to its fullest (whatever that means) can give them a bit of solace and courage, but then they feel they have no real say in the matter and just go on doing what they do... with two weeks vacation per year. N'est ce pas?