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“Get in touch with your dark side,” urges Toyota in an ad for the Matrix VCAM.
“Go ahead, indulge your dark side,” Nestle says of its dark chocolate caramel Treasures.
Marketing experts know there’s something strangely appealing about the dark side of human nature—and they are capitalizing on it.
Goth and Halloween
One example of this strategy is the successful promotion of Goth characters such as Emily the Strange that are rapidly gaining popularity with preteens. As Karyn M. Peterson of Playthings magazine reports, “Fuzzy zombie teddy bears wielding weapons, cuddly-yet-creepy skeletal pets, designer dolls with ghostly death-mask faces—toys and collectibles like these that embrace dark (and even macabre) themes…are increasingly finding younger and younger fans.”
Another example is the annual marketing blitz surrounding Halloween. According to Businessweek, “Halloween is the second-biggest holiday behind Christmas in home-decorating sales, and the sixth-biggest retail holiday for overall sales.” Between all the parties, TV shows and special events that accompany this holiday, themes of fear and death have now become normalized as entertaining traditions.
Desensitizing games
Does popularizing evil desensitize us to the true nature of the human heart?
A 2007 Iowa State University study of video game players found that even brief exposure to violent media has a measurably desensitizing effect. The authors of this study expressed the following concerns regarding the way popular media is presented to the public over our lifespan:
“Children receive high doses of media violence. It initially is packaged in ways that are not too threatening, with cute cartoon-like characters, a total absence of blood and gore, and other features that make the overall experience a pleasant one, arousing positive emotional reactions that are incongruent with normal negative reactions to violence. Older children consume increasingly threatening and realistic violence, but the increases are gradual and always in a way that is fun. In short, the modern entertainment media landscape could accurately be described as an effective systematic violence desensitization tool.”
Desensitization often starts when we are very young, whether through the surrounding culture and related media or via family experiences. This may lead to a decreased appreciation—or even subtle acceptance—of the evil and all too typical violence that permeates the world such as:
- The attack that occurred in Beijing just after the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
- The practice of slavery—still a problem all over the globe.
- Terrorist plots to overthrow entire national or religious cultures.
Cure for a sick heart
How dangerous is our world to us? The common thread among these and other evils we see today is a sick heart—and we’re all vulnerable to infection.
“Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed” (Jeremiah 17:9, Good News Bible).
God says we all have the capacity to deceive ourselves into thinking good is evil, and evil is good. That’s a frightening revelation. Given the right circumstances, we have the ability to commit evil and justify doing so. If we desensitize to the point that we can no longer recognize evil, is it possible that we, too, could become agents of evil instead of just spectators?
Our Creator warns us to carefully guard the thoughts and motives of our heart to avoid falling prey to self-deception. With His help and careful vigilance as to what we allow into our minds, we can prevent the dark side of the human heart from controlling our destiny.
To find out more about how to overcome your dark side, read “The Battle for Your Mind.” VT
- About the Author -
Sean Yarbrough lives with his wife, Kristin, and daughter, Katie, in Tampa, Florida. He works as a home health occupational therapist and is active in the United Church of God.
I stood on a soapbox in high school English class.
Speaking from a raised platform or soapbox originates at Hyde Park in London where Speaker’s Corner was established in 1872 to allow public debates on various topics. Our teacher dedicated some time each week for a “soapbox session.”
From my soapbox I posed a question. Were we young adults prepared to give up our lives for our friends?
School shootings had recently occurred where some young men and women had shown great heroism in the face of peril and tragedy. It was a heavy subject for a soapbox—met with surprise, affirmation, disbelief and rejection. But Christians in particular need to consider this subject.
Greater love
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Outlined by Jesus, this biblical principle has been honorably upheld in history—usually during the danger and duress of war. Comrades have protected each other in the upheaval of battle, and many have given their lives so that friends or family members could live.
I came to understand a wider application. If you give your life up for a friend, you can only do it once. But over the course of a lifetime you can give up pieces of your life to friends in various ways—through long-term service, rather than one moment of supreme sacrifice.
What to give
Serving others is self-sacrifice. Modern culture tends to just throw money, not service, at a need. This idea of service might be easier to understand in a barter society. That’s where people trade goods and services directly without using the middleman of money.
Writer-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson touched on this idea in his essay called “Gifts.” He wrote about how to choose a present to give to another person, thus illustrating the concept of sacrifice:
“The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so far to the primary basis, when a man’s biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man’s wealth is an index of his merit.”
The gift of time
If we can’t give gems, shells, lambs or corn—we can give time, thought and energy. We can help out with a project, clean something up or even enjoy a cup of coffee or tea together. We can write a letter of encouragement, give a quick phone call or pray for God to bless our friends.
The gift of time crosses generations. We all have time to sacrifice for our elders, even as they have sacrificed for us as parents, grandparents, teachers and leaders. Lend a hand, write a note or e-mail, call or visit and listen to their lifetime lessons. It is important that we who are younger take the time to give those who are older the opportunity to give back in response.
True loving service to others follows a standard. Check out “A Royal Law of Love.”
Just as Jesus did, incorporate the spirit of sacrifice into your routine each day and discover the positive impact it will have on you and those for whom you lay down your life. It’s your “gift” to give. VT
- About the Author -
Amanda Stiver works as a freelance writer-editor and Vertical Thought volunteer staff member from her home near Columbus, Ohio.
