Cookie-Cutter Nation

When I eat at the dorm cafeteria I have to turn on “Bullet in the Head” by Rage Against the Machine. The song is about how we, as a country, as a society, subscribe so readily to a certain way of life, a way of life leading us to apathy, to stagnancy, a way of life leading to selfishness, to self-worship. Here is a section of lyrics from the song:

 

No escape from the mass mind rape

Play it again jack and then rewind the tape

And then play it again and again and again

Until ya mind is locked in

Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya

Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya

They say jump and ya say how high

Ya brain-dead

Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in ya head

 

As I sit and eat my packaged apples I think, pondering the people around me, and on the rare occasions my headphones aren’t in, I listen. The number one topic of conversation is alcohol. No shit. Conversations go like this:

 

“Oh—my—gosh! I had like seven shots of tequila last night!”

“Oh my gah really? That is like so much! Do you remember anything?”

*Girl thinks for a few seconds* “Um I don’t think so . . . ”

 

What the hell are we doing?

 

Conspiracy-theory people are really weird, but this is truth: media tells us several things in America (I will say America all I want because this is where I live and I have only abroad so many weeks, so I don’t know their media, but I have every right to rant against the American media). Media tells us that alcohol both makes you happy and gets you sex, and the sex you get from alcohol isn’t some half-ass leftover sex, but sex with girls who look like air-brushed supermodels (girls who actually ARE air-brushed supermodels in the commercials). Google-Image Coors Light or Bud Light and see some of the pictures. Beer is sex is happiness. Better yet, Google-Image Sports Illustrated—what comes up? Oh, every single picture is a girl in a bikini. We are so bent on sex. Sex and drugs. Sex and drugs and buying things.

 

Another fact about America: our economy is built on buying things. Buy more things! How much of the stuff we buy do we actually need? The whole stability of our nation lies on purchasing things. Even now, when the economy is almost at rock-bottom, what are we told? Buy things! Buy things because they’re cheaper than ever! Our society, our economy is way past the point of capitalism; we have reached an obsession with things.  I can’t even describe how insane it is that we think all day long about things. Everywhere we are bombarded with things, with sex, with alcohol. We are being conditioned. And it’s bullshit.

 

Another aspect of the mass conditioning of American society is that, due to the (obvious) fact that we are all being shot with the same ads, we are all being told to be one way, to live life in this way. The alcohol and hot sex and skinny big-boobed money things more iPods (pause: have you ever noticed how funny it is that they are called I pods . . . how selfish can we get? it’s all about me! and the funniest thing is we are losing the me because we are all told to be the same!). More stuff!

 

Also notice how sexist this all is. Women are becoming objects more than ever. If you don’t think that there are feminist issues that we as Christians should be fighting for your head is up your ass.

 

Back to the lunch room: I can see the fruit of our media. I can see how we all are becoming homogenous. All the girls are looking the same and all the guys are looking the same and all the clothes are looking the same. We are becoming one—completely losing our individuality. I sit in the lunchroom and people talk about alcohol. I sit in the lunchroom and people all look the same. I sit in the lunchroom and go insane. We are becoming cookie-cutter people. We are letting the way our economy works govern our lives. Sex sells. Our economy runs on sales. So let’s sell sex. Let’s tell people sex will make them happy, or that beer will make them happy, because if they think it will cure their disease they will buy it. My gosh this is such bullshit.

 

I might have lost you by now but here is the part that angers me most. Because our country is so me-centered, we neglect other areas of the world (and here at home as well) that are impoverished that so desperately need our help.

 

In the first chapter of Galatians Paul talks about how he was “set apart” by God to do His will, for the advancement of the gospel. Like Paul, we (brothers and sisters in Christ) have literally been chosen by God to share the goodness. God has hand-picked you and me to share in the knowledge of Christ so that we may bear fruit and glorify the Father. God doesn’t want us to be what the American media wants us to be. God wants us to be like Jesus, who cares for and loves them and doesn’t (didn’t) live the alcohol and hot-sex-skinny-big-boobed-money-things-more-iPods life. Jesus, believe it or not, was not a product of America. Thank God.

 

We are set apart, sisters. We are set apart, brothers.

 

I conclude with a word of encouragement:

 

As most of you know, I have been involved with RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) here at the University of Iowa, and the friends I have made in and through RUF are so close to my heart. I see the Holy Spirit so evidently in their lives. The people at RUF aren’t cookie-cutter people because they have the Holy Spirit. The people at RUF and One Ancient Hope give me a smile. They gave me optimism and hope that this whole country isn’t going to shit.

 

God’s Holy Spirit moves. His son cloaks. He loves.