Real Life Aesthetics

I was at The Home Depot recently buying supplies to protect my windows from a potential hurricane. When I presented my credit card to the cashier, he noticed that there was a picture of children playing on the card instead of a graphic logo or design. Now it's not my kids; it just happens to be the picture chosen by Chase for the Toys R Us MasterCard that I like to use. This picture prompted the cashier to tell me about a commercial he had seen that goes something like this:

A woman arrives at the cashier in order to pay for her merchandise, and she hands the cashier her customized credit card. The cashier looks at the card, noticing the custom photo of a man on the card. Curiously, the cashier questions the patron, "Oh who's this?" The woman answers, "That's my boyfriend." Breaking off the transaction for a moment, the cashier plunges into her purse only to reveal a credit card customized with a photo of the same man. She declares to the woman, "Mine too!"

Back in my world, I laughed at the humor of the story. However, when I walked out of the store, I was troubled by something. I began to think about the story and how I reacted to it. Upon further review, I discovered that this story of the two-timing man with “card-carrying” girlfriends was actually a very horrible story. It describes a man with no integrity purposefully deceiving (at least) two women for his own pleasure. It’s a story about betrayal and the likely brokenness ensuing in the wake of discovery by the two women. What makes it even worse is this story’s use as a mechanism for humor.

The reason I point this out deals with the subject of aesthetics. I’ve heard aesthetics described as those things in the world around us which we perceive through our senses. Think about walking into someone’s house. The aesthetics of the house are all of the sights, sounds, and smells that confront you as soon as you walk in the door. It can include taste and touch if you further interact with the house’s occupants.

The interesting thing about aesthetics, especially in the case of someone’s house, is that they effectively reveal the culture of the occupants. For example, a library full of woodworking books reveals that the at least one of the occupants likely values the hobby of woodworking. A kitchen full of cookbooks and well-used pots would also reveal that the occupants value cooking at home. These things may not seem to terribly informative at first, but if you examine why those activities are important, more information is uncovered. For example, it’s possible that the woodworking hobby is really part of a plan for the father of the house to develop a family business because he values time spent with his family more than time spent serving a corporation away from home. Likewise, cooking at home might be a reflection of a belief that regularly eating meals at restaurants is not a good use of the household resources.

Back to the credit card story…

The aesthetics of the credit card story are all the sights and sounds which proceed from the television during the commercial. Those sights and sounds are intentionally chosen to paint a picture of a make-believe world in which the commercial's characters live. It describes for the viewers what the culture of the commercial is like. By and large, the culture of the commercial is very much like our own. It’s supposed to be a world with which the viewers identify as being familiar and likeable. Through the specifically crafted elements presented to us, the producer draws us into the make-believe world of the commercial. Once we’re captured, the characters' elements with their personal relationships come into play. We learn relevant details of those relationships to the degree that is necessary to communicate the intended plot line. In the end, we are taken through an unexpected twist that is designed to elicit a humorous response and in some way encourage us to use a particular “brand” of credit card.

What I find troubling is the commercial’s use of objectionable elements and their presentation in a way which encourages the viewers to lose focus of them and look past them. I don’t know of many people who would think that being deceived and dumped is a good thing. Yet, we find ourselves laughing at this very thing, as if the lying and deceit aren’t there. When we lose focus of those things, allowing them to exist in our mind unchallenged, we are providing tacit approval of them. More and more in the media we consume, the moral underpinnings of our culture are being eroded away in our minds by this tacit acceptance of immoral behavior such as that in the commercial. The behavior in question is rarely the main topic of a story, but it is provided as context which frames the plot. We are encouraged to look past these “peripheral issues” to the main plot, but in doing so, we are accepting more than we realize.

Consumers of media need to be aggressively aware of what the media is doing to them. We should not allow the world view of media producers to influence our own without first analyzing their teachings to determine how their world view fits with our own. Television and film are by nature teaching media. With enough exposure, we become disciples to those who craft the views presented in our media.

This is precisely why I strive to be vigilant in screening what media my family and I consume. Jesus says that we cannot serve two masters. If I’m not careful, I may end up allowing false teachings into my home through my television, computer, or DVD player. Heaven forbid that I be so derelict in my duty to protect my family from deception!