“We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.” Merton

“You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption.” Noam Chomsky

“Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments.” Thomas Merton

“Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you”
Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“Then [Jesus] said to them,
‘Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed;
life does not consist
in an abundance of possessions.’”
Luke 12:15

Moving From the Head to the Heart

• To what degree are you “distracted” by consumption? Do you passively embrace the advertizing?
• Has marketing captivated and mesmerized your ego, deceiving and manipulating you while “life outside goes on all around you?”
• Are you on guard against the temptation to embrace the idea that life consists “in an abundance of possessions?” What are you doing to live more simply?

Abba, help me see through the illusions of my day, through all the artificial complexity, to the true simplicity on the other side.

For More: The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton