My studies in psychology and social behavior operate upon the presumed given that all men are narcissistic. All men are selfish and turn their eyes inward (like Joseph Addison's Beau) and nervously from side to side, reassuring themselves that they truly are important and well-beloved by their peers, men and women, children, the elder generation. Narcissism is paralyzing, obsessive, anxiety-inducing, and vain. Truly narcissism is as fleeting as youth, and time keeps on slipping into the future. Our lives are but a puff of air, and men pine into shiny glasses to check their pores or to preen their hair, not knowing that they are turning into stone by a riverbed, waiting their watery demise. There's a time and a place for everything, for sorrowfully-shaven heads and well-groomed fingernails alike.
Television (and other forms of literature and art, to lesser extents) will act on this narcissism by drawing men into stories, beauty, and complex and wondrous things. Men are grasped into the narratives and they surrender their souls for a few hours so they can be glamorous and heroic and strong, but this is not the purpose of Beauty. Beauty is not sedate, it is not a copycat or a liar, and it does not seek to please itself, but points to God. Television makes the viewer believe that he is dialogueing with the characters, the teevee setting, and the other audience members.
Jay-Z's new single "Holy Grail" points out the vanity of fame:
...Caught up in all these lights and cameras/
But look what that shit did to Hammer/
Goddammit I like it/
Bright lights is enticing but look what it did to Tyson/
All that money in one night/ thirty mil for one fight/
But soon as all the money blows/ all the pigeons take flight/
Fuck the fame, keep cheating on me/...
And we're all just entertainers, and we're stupid and contagious, and we're all just entertainers. (referencing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit")
Now I got tattoos on my body/ psycho bitches in my lobby/
I got haters in the paper/ photoshoots with paparazzi/
Can't even take my daughter for a walk/ see em by the corner store/
I feel like I'm cornered off/ enough is enough/ I'm calling this off/
Who the fuck I'm kidding though/ I'm getting high/ sitting low/
Sliding by in that big body/ curtains all in my window/
This fame hurt but this chain works/
I think back you asked the same person/
If this is all you had to deal with/
nigga deal with/ this shit ain't work/
This light work/ cameras snapping/ my eyes hurt/...
Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake are speaking towards the allure and emptiness of fame. The "you" continuously referenced in the song seemed at first to me to be referring to a woman, but truly it makes more sense to think of the second person addressed as an anthropomorphic "Fame." Fame is fickle, yet these men admit that they love her enough to tattoo her name forever on their bodies, though she may take everything from them, from the clothes off their backs to the air in their lungs. Fame holds the keys to health and wealth for these stupid and contagious entertainers who can't help sipping from the "holy grail" of fame.
Jesus finally and totally smashes this false conception by allowing us to take our eyes off of ourselves with decisive words from the Psalmist and his son, also quoted by Peter:
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. (ps.34:15)
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He pondereth all his doings. (prov5:21)
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (prov.15:3)
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1peter 3:12)
If God watches all things, we can have the satisfaction that narcissism demands: a vigilant and caring audience. The Judge of our performance scrutinizes the thoughts of our hearts--what else could the narcissist require? Yet thanks be to God that our fallen efforts are not left in vain to condemn us before the thrice-holy God; for He has installed new hearts within Christians young and old to love Him and faithfully carry out His commands to rejoice and rule over all creation.
No longer are we bound to sip from the "holy grail" of fame, which never satisfies; Jesus is better in that He bled Himself dry and breathed His last so that we could have living water and a living hope that doesn't disappoint us.
Television (and other forms of literature and art, to lesser extents) will act on this narcissism by drawing men into stories, beauty, and complex and wondrous things. Men are grasped into the narratives and they surrender their souls for a few hours so they can be glamorous and heroic and strong, but this is not the purpose of Beauty. Beauty is not sedate, it is not a copycat or a liar, and it does not seek to please itself, but points to God. Television makes the viewer believe that he is dialogueing with the characters, the teevee setting, and the other audience members.
Jay-Z's new single "Holy Grail" points out the vanity of fame:
...Caught up in all these lights and cameras/
But look what that shit did to Hammer/
Goddammit I like it/
Bright lights is enticing but look what it did to Tyson/
All that money in one night/ thirty mil for one fight/
But soon as all the money blows/ all the pigeons take flight/
Fuck the fame, keep cheating on me/...
And we're all just entertainers, and we're stupid and contagious, and we're all just entertainers. (referencing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit")
Now I got tattoos on my body/ psycho bitches in my lobby/
I got haters in the paper/ photoshoots with paparazzi/
Can't even take my daughter for a walk/ see em by the corner store/
I feel like I'm cornered off/ enough is enough/ I'm calling this off/
Who the fuck I'm kidding though/ I'm getting high/ sitting low/
Sliding by in that big body/ curtains all in my window/
This fame hurt but this chain works/
I think back you asked the same person/
If this is all you had to deal with/
nigga deal with/ this shit ain't work/
This light work/ cameras snapping/ my eyes hurt/...
Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake are speaking towards the allure and emptiness of fame. The "you" continuously referenced in the song seemed at first to me to be referring to a woman, but truly it makes more sense to think of the second person addressed as an anthropomorphic "Fame." Fame is fickle, yet these men admit that they love her enough to tattoo her name forever on their bodies, though she may take everything from them, from the clothes off their backs to the air in their lungs. Fame holds the keys to health and wealth for these stupid and contagious entertainers who can't help sipping from the "holy grail" of fame.
Jesus finally and totally smashes this false conception by allowing us to take our eyes off of ourselves with decisive words from the Psalmist and his son, also quoted by Peter:
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. (ps.34:15)
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He pondereth all his doings. (prov5:21)
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (prov.15:3)
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1peter 3:12)
If God watches all things, we can have the satisfaction that narcissism demands: a vigilant and caring audience. The Judge of our performance scrutinizes the thoughts of our hearts--what else could the narcissist require? Yet thanks be to God that our fallen efforts are not left in vain to condemn us before the thrice-holy God; for He has installed new hearts within Christians young and old to love Him and faithfully carry out His commands to rejoice and rule over all creation.
No longer are we bound to sip from the "holy grail" of fame, which never satisfies; Jesus is better in that He bled Himself dry and breathed His last so that we could have living water and a living hope that doesn't disappoint us.
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