It's All Mickey Mouse's Fault!

According to a report in today's newspaper, a Catholic monk has warned that society is in danger of losing its soul because of growing consumerism and the decline of religion. Well, I suppose he would say that, wouldn't he? He suggests that many people have become obsessed with work, sex and eating in an attempt to ignore their underlying unhappiness, and criticises corporations and industries that have benefited from promoting false notions of fulfilment, citing Disney as a typical example. Whereas it is likely that society is in danger of losing its soul (has probably already lost it), I hardly think it's right to blame little Mickey Mouse for any of this.

Fr Jamison, who lives a cloistered and privileged life as the head of the Worth Abbey states that: "Where once morality and meaning were available as part of our free cultural inheritance, now corporations [such as Disney] sell them to us as products." Hmm, this is an interesting viewpoint. I wonder, is it any worse that we can now choose to buy our spirituality, rather than having it forced upon us by a domineering and oppressive church? In the past, people like Fr Jamison, who advocated simplicity and humility in the lives of the common man, did so as a means of controlling the population. We were promised that the poverty and deprivation we had to suffer in today's world, would be more than repaid with untold riches in the next. How is that any less cynical than the promise of happiness now, which is what corporations like Disney appear to have on offer?

I do have some sympathy with his message however – he's right that the rise of celebrity culture does instil a certain dissatisfaction amongst some people. He says that: "Envy tells us to stop facing the challenges of the present life and to live in some future fantasy. Such envy drives a large part of our consumer culture. People need to learn to control their thoughts, and practice more self-discipline and self-control in their life."

I particularly like his assertion that there are "eight thoughts" which need to be controlled to help people to discover their happiness. Six of them - anger, pride, gluttony, lust, greed, and spiritual apathy (or sloth) - strangely already appear in the list of deadly sins (and who gave us those, I wonder?), but to these he adds sadness and vanity. He could be right, of course, but his message is slightly off the mark in my opinion. There shouldn't be anything wrong in any of us aiming for self-improvement – it is, after all, what has driven all creativity throughout the ages – and it isn't good enough that we should be told to put up with our lot and not strive for a better life. The problem is that people like Fr Jamison confuse spirituality with religious dogma, and I'll have no truck with that. He's guilty of envy himself because he's annoyed that Disney has more influence in today's society than the failing church.

Now, how about a nice pair of puppy-Dalmatian skin gloves? What's good enough for Cruella de Ville.....