Planting the Seeds of Love

When God lets himself be born and become man, this is not an idle caprice, some fancy he hits upon just to be doing something, perhaps to put an end to the boredom that has brashly been said must be involved in being God—it is not in order to have an adventure. No, when God does this, then this fact is the earnestness of existence. And, in turn, the earnestness in this earnestness is: that everyone shall have an opinion about it.

— Sickness Unto Death, Søren Kierkegaard

Media as Repressing

In our 21st century, we are more narcissistic than we have ever been: the vilifying flames of social media have fanned this choking velleity on the world. Not only are we concerned with our neighbour, but we are obsessed with them - all their riches, their possessions, their weaknesses, their insecurities, their strengths, their fears - we know all of them, they are inscribed into our hearts as though they are our right of possession. But little do we look at ourselves, and little thus do we realise how our profane interior is infecting those around us, permeating first from the eyes, and then from our bodily movement. We cannot pretend to love others, for it will be immediately obvious from the darkness of the eyes, the room in which our insecurities and selfishness fester and thrive.

And what is this darkness veiled over our eyes? It is the lack of true introspection - for obviously social media has made us more self-conscious than ever. But this increase in self-consciousness is controlled utterly by the media - the things we have ourselves become self-conscious about is dictated solely by the media. The media has complete totalitarian authority over our minds, for it only wants us to think the thoughts they want us to think.

And so we are self-conscious, but of what? How others perceive me, how the world perceives me, how my own family will accept me - my communities, my culture. How my beauty, my wealth, my confidence, my status, my beliefs affect my reputation. How my own person, my own soul, that is my appearance, my personality, my tendencies, my gender (male or female), my skills, my strengths, my weaknesses can fit within the 2-dimensional reality social media propagates.

And it cannot. Media profits from individuals selling to the world a false representation of themselves, a side completely fabricated to appease the beast: the superego. Nowhere, and absolutely nowhere, do we find 3-dimensional characters on the media, for this is considered boring. The plebians have been conditioned to see the successes, the riches, and the good memories without all the heartache involved; they have learned to love intoxicating themselves in this horrifying utopia where there is no suffering; and thus in the apex of this catastrophe, they have accepted that the rich and wealthy do not suffer and deserve to suffer, that they themselves deserve to be poor and that nothing can change.

There is then only falsehood presented by the media.

For there to be any meaningful truth, we cannot conceal the fact that from the same tree good and bad fruits blossom.

The average struggling middle-class man has given up, and has grown tired.

Revolt against oppressive media forces would encourage the truth to manifest, but is not possible when the backbone of our plebian class are un-opinionated, feminised, weak men.

Escaping the Media's Gaze

The only path to change is in escaping from this oppressive matrix. But this desire can never be kindled if we are constantly trapped within it, where we do not realise that we are conditioned by it. For as long as we are enslaved, our beliefs are not our own, our thoughts also not our own.

Let us set aside this paranoia of the panopticon! This maddening zeal that we have to be admired by the media!

Opinions about our self-image are worthless if they do not come from loyal friends and family.

If we are ostracised by the media for sharing the truth, so be it - the others will see it and follow.

There needs to be a counter-narrative to the hogwash the media is forcing on the world.

Media as Prohibiting Love

The distracting voices of world are ubiquitous and are always speaking at us, even in seclusion.

For as long as we succumb to it, we keep to our own, thinking ourselves too important for others. But the most profound damage is that, even though our engagement with the media has profoundly made us more self-conscious and aware of ourselves, we are ironically blind to the damage this self-awareness is causing.

Our eyes are physically turned inwards so that our pupils never see the light; our bodies emaciated from intense hunger and thirst; our faces etched with wrinkles even in our blooming youth; we reject the walking stick, cursing the one who offered it and prefer instead to stumble and fall constantly; we cannot even speak but can only manage to mumble and groan incoherently; our ears are accustomed to the deafening wailing of abhorrence that always weaken and subdue us.

But when we have finally grown tired of burning sacrifices for the zeitgeist as to some pagan god, and when the deafening cries of judgement and hate have dulled to a low buzz in our ears, we quickly realise that until that point not only was it impossible to love, but also to feel compassion for others.

Ah compassion and love! Now, as we lift our heads from the water and grasp violently for breath, we realise we do not understand the significance of these terms anymore! Today, they are merely a means to garner self-respect and despotic egotism. Even in Church society, we have been influenced by the world and by the media in that compassion and love are mere additives within social interactions, insofar as they (1) do not tarnish self-reputation,(2) are reciprocated, and (3) could be used to reap personal benefits from.

No longer do we see any value or duty in loving others where we are not apparently obliged. I would argue that even in the times when we do give freely and when no one is watching, we are merely satisfying the edge in our conscience – we just want to feel pleased with ourselves. And to feel holy for these acts, that to think the pleasure and the happiness is somehow coming from God! No! Let us not deceive ourselves any longer! We are not satisfied anymore with being holy fools!

Take any of our modern Church-goers and ask them to reach out to the black sheep; or watch them alone walk past a homeless man on the street; ask them to garner the congregations’ respect and love for our mentally slack sheep – he will um and err, he will hesitate! He is thinking! But what is he thinking about? How his reputation, how his status, how his appearance will change before the media. And it doesn’t matter whether it be the church or simply the world (even though they should be distinct), the panopticon is prevalent everywhere – the modern church-goer sees all places the same, treads all places with his insecurities!

And he cares so much for how others think of him! He is so fearful to move, lest he be killed! ‘For God forbid’, our modern man thinks, ‘that I do something the people scorn me for and mock me for! That I should do nothing too rash lest they flatter me with their tongue and mock and ridicule me with their smiling eyes! Oh, that I should be like everyone else! Surely I don’t need to do it, surely someone will do it in my stead! After all, does not God provide? If there is a need, He will send help – I don’t need to do anything! Everyone loves me, I don’t need to change anything!’

And this mindset inevitably leads towards a static Christianity! Once we have become preoccupied with how our love is received, immediately we become self-conscious and a tool for the media – we become as slaves to the world.

Modern Christianity has focused on everything but active love, but this is the beginning place for all Christians. We have crudely perverted this to the point where we now believe it is the impression of love that is the most important! That it is the appearance of love!

But merely to pinch at the old hag’s head of hair we quickly realise she was wearing a cheap plastic wig! That the ‘love’ we minister is nothing but a desire for validation from others!