Steve Portnoy
Theology Challenges to Faith
Fr. John Kavanaugh, aware of the effects that media and advertisements have on the average person’s desires, recognizes the threat to our values that this commercialized information possess as this “information” becomes the “formation” of who we are, and even more so, what we need to be happy. Kavanaugh recognizes that living in such a privileged country, we have little need for many products that are on the market today including clothes, shoes, perfumes, food, and cigarettes. However, he further realizes that it is not the need for these goods that sells them, but the want and desire for the values that are associated with the product. For instance, a person may not need a new pair of shoes, but instead, that person hungers for the respect he or she will acquire from wearing what is “fashionable.” The media’s association of products with some higher value is linked to the high rate of materialism that exists in our culture today which leaves people believing that being “Kool” can only be found in cigarettes, that a sense of “Spirit” can only be acquired by purchasing an automobile, and that other emotions such as love, generosity, and passion, are only items to be purchased. This materialistic outlook takes away partial realities of what love is, what relationships are, and what God is, and replaces these with the associations we make with the products we are told to buy in order to achieve these values. Kavanaugh, therefore, fears the spread of this “forming” media, as he is aware that “we discover our meaning by relating to things instead of people, [and that] our entire identity then becomes wrapped up in the things we relate to,” and when the values we desire based off of advertisements become immoral like sexual exploitation, drug use, and the objectification of women, our culture is truly being misled.
More modernly exemplified in the documentary “The Merchants of Cool,” the dehumanization process is made evident as large-scale corporations such as AOL Time Warner and Viacom rob adolescents of their individuality, mass produce it, and sell it to the masses for their own profit. Searching for unique and possible “trend-setting” qualities in teens who strive for individuality and possess the possibility for being “leaders” in their groups, these companies take the fashions and ideas from these unique individuals and make them “trendy” merely to make the profit as the millions of adolescents rush to purchase what the next trend or fashion might be. The question arises, however, “Who shapes who?” –-“Do the teens shape the values, or does the media?” As portrayed by the documentary, it seems that the original ideas for trends come from those individuals who possess leader-like qualities and desires to express a sense of individuality, however, these ideas and fashions are not shaped into trends until these large-scale companies market them to teens world-wide in an attempt to make the profit, and in turn they shape the rest of the culture to conform to these values as they try to meet these fashionable standards in attempt to be accepted as “cool.” However, complications quickly arise as adolescents become aware that something is becoming “trendy” and therefore, the trend dies down, hence, “what is cool” is often very difficult to recognize—even for adolescents themselves. Essentially, however, it is the reoccurring values, such as the identities of a funny, unintelligent, immature male, and a female only concerned with her looks, evident in the media today that truly lead to the dehumanization process that shapes the values of adolescents.
While a modern example of the depersonalization caused by the media, “The Merchant’s of Cool” does reflect Father John Kavanaugh’s awareness of the forming and shaping of cultural values caused by advertising. Just as Kavanaugh suggests, advertisers themselves, as made evident by “The Merchant’s of Cool,” recognize that as humans, we mostly have little need for the products they are selling, but instead we have a hunger for the popularity, the respect, or the dignity associated with the product being sold, and it is the emptiness one feels in not having this designated respect or “coolness” that truly leaves one feeling dehumanized.