The Ooze sent along another interesting book among a few others I have not been able to get to yet.  My wife, who is a behavioral health counselor (M.A., NCC) snatched it up and devoured it.  So she posted a review of the book that I am reposting here.  I have a few thoughts that follow.

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I recently read Porn Nation: Conquering America’s #1 Addiction by Michael Leahy. You may not know Michael Leahy’s name, but if you saw a picture of him, you would know exactly who he is. He has appeared on the 20/20 and The View discussing America’s problem with sexuality. He also has been on Oprah - who is the one who stated that sex is America’s #1 addiction.

The book is interesting in that it starts out explaining his journey to becoming a sex addict. He starts out like every kid does - seeing porn for the first time as a preteen. But from there, it progressed. First, slowly. But then as he reached college age and beyond, the addiction grew rapidly.

As a counselor, what was most interesting to me was that his childhood was not extraordinary. No sexual abuse. His parents were present. But it was able to happen just based on life experiences and what became available to him.

This led me to really reflect on our culture, which is what I believe is his hope from this book. I live in a town where under a mile from me is an “Adult Store.” Drive up and down the highway in the area and you are sure to find an Adult Novelty Store. How long will it take my sons to go from trying to rent movies on our blocked channels to going to see live dancers at a local establishment?

Our culture is truly inundated with sexuality. Watch any tv show. Pick up any magazine. Go to the beach. You can buy a bikini for your 9 month old daughter. And in the internet age, all you need to do is search. It’s there.

Leahy willingly opens his heart to us to tell us all about his dirty laundry. There is even a chapter that is journal articles written by his exwife about what they were going through. What a strong woman she must be to be willing to have her name and her life exposed in such a way. I admire their courage!

The end of the book reads a lot like a self-help manual, but even those not in the depth of addition can glean some wisdom. Anyone who counsels people with addiction should take a look at this book.

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I find this to be a fascinating topic because of the way that we tend to understand sex in the US and perhaps elsewhere.  Sex is a private matter, especially when it is between two consenting adults, and further when those adults are married.  It is not a topic that we discuss in church that much, not something that we discuss at work all that often, and not something that we tend to disclose.  It is often taboo, dirty, and embarrassing hence the exaggerated issue of talking to kids about “the birds and the bees” rather than having an honest discussion about sexuality and how sperm comes from a penis to fertilize an egg and that is what tends to happen with sex.

Yet we are very public with our consumption habits with sexuality.  From Hooters billboards that might feature a student or two of yours if you happen to be a college instructor (one stared at me for three months this past year), the top shelf magazines at the convenience store, daytime soap operas, Axe commercials, car magazines, the latest men’s underwear billboard in Times Square, or Sex and the City, sex is everywhere to be consumed.

This book highlights that issue.  Sex is private unless we are consuming it.  Sex is not sold as something related to love, but as something that is sold like the cars and alcohol it wraps up in its innuendo packed gift boxes of pleasure.  This is a book worth reading to see just how intense the marketing of porn is everywhere whether you choose to ignore it or not.

It seems to be one of many continual lessons in just how media illiterate we are in a time when we should be far more cognizant of the politics and marketing of desire.  The social effects of such consumption habits cannot be ignored.

Go to the book website here and the author’s blog here for additional information.

Bryan Williams just used this curious phrase in this context:

“It is believed that the violence in Iraq has decreased in recent weeks.”

What does this mean?

It seems that we would have surely have enough data somewhere to determine if in fact the violence has declined or that it has not. What is this “it” anyway? Sometimes the word “it” used this way might refer to a consensus. Whose consensus? Which data? How do we know if they are right or wrong? This should be a yes or no question because the data is so discrete. Here are other ways that language like this is absurd when we have clear and discrete data to determine something.

It is believed that:

• My wife and I were married in 1998.
• Church attendance spiked in the 1950’s and the 1980’s.
• At least some tomatoes in the past several weeks have been reported to have had salmonella bacteria.
• The world’s population is over 5 Billion people.
• Atoms cannot be seen with the naked eye.
• The elephant is the largest land animal alive today.
• Michael Dukakis was never the President of the United States.
• The crime rate in New York City went down dramatically during Rudi Giuliani’s terms in office as Mayor.

Now follow these statements with something like: “Startling details are emerging from this developing story. Tom Aspell reports.” Not interesting right? That’s what I thought about that lead-in to Iraq.

But…

This is what people will watch and listen to. Data is boring - especially when it is clear and discrete. Conjecture evokes a sense of mystery and allows the random and uninformed viewer to fill in the gaps with their own ideas about it. It creates gossip and conversation without which marketing suffers. If the consumer cannot read themselves into the story, it becomes less vivid, less salient, and less effective in driving up ratings and creating an audience. This story told us nothing factual and nothing new. However, it did evoke a response. I am just not sure my reaction was the kind of reaction they wanted. But I think it is the kind of reaction that more ought to have - especially in an election year.

The US is the largest source of media consumption in the world and it is also a place where media literacy is not a literacy we are taught very well, or at all. Media messages form and reinforce structures of belief and marketers know exactly how to do it whether the consumer likes it or not. They know your assumptions already and use them to link a product to a belief thereby reinforcing that belief. The kicker, the hook, the prestige here is that what you believe is just not good enough. The marketer always has something better, more fulfilling, and something more deeply related to you personally.

So why should I believe Bryan Williams’ lead in? It is what all Americans - those who want the troops out and those who would rather the US military stick around to ensure business is done - would like to see happen. So thanks for making us feel that you were our invited conversation partner during that lead-in Bryan Williams. We have a new friend again tonight and we will remember that for the next NBC or MSNBC news story. I am just not sure if what was just reported has any real substance to it.

One more thing…

That kind of story sets the audience up for the next climatic violent incident. Another reaction, another catharsis, another belief structure on this endless roller-coaster narrative plot line called the news. Constructed reality served to you nightly courtesy of corporate media. And that’s the way it is…

Douglas Rushkoff has a fantastic piece on political marketing, the good stuff in Obama’s brand, and the potential pitfalls and danger spots moving forward.

Those of us hoping to build communities, improve our schools, invigorate our local economies, restructure our land use, or reduce our energy dependence mustn’t equate a presidential campaign with substantive change. Obama may be a convenient conceptual placeholder for these concerns, as well as a person capable of dismantling a good amount of America’s more fascistic and militaristic infrastructure. But the only way he’ll even have the latitude to behave in a slightly more enlightened manner than his predecessors will be if we, the actual people on the ground, have chosen to live more consistently with those goals. If he’s president of a nation of fast-food-eating, bigoted, and selfish SUV drivers, he’ll prove as powerless as Cheney was malicious. And the results will be the same.

I urge you to read the entire piece here.

Campaigning is marketing.  It is about focus groups, polls, and creating a brand for a candidate.  If we look at it through the lens of consumer marketing, one goal is to get you to believe that without the acquisition of a certain artifact, your life will simply not be as enjoyable, fulfilling, whole, etc.  Keep an eye on this as Obama and McCain start volleying more directly at each other now.

Both will seek to do one thing - especially to moderate and undecided voters: make their message more vivid, salient, and memorable by the time you get to the polls.  Part of this is to label the other candidate as “Brand “X”.

Obama will tie McCain to Bush’s sinking political marketability and hope to anchor him as the candidate who will bring the Bush presidency to a largely imagined logical end.  McCain used to be a good product, but is not the same anymore.  So it’s time for an upgrade to a better system rather than continue to patch up this old one that is not really working anymore.  Still on Windows XP?  Try this MacBook Air instead.

McCain will follow a lot of Clinton’s message of Obama’s talk is just talk and he is going to make promises that he can’t keep.  Why would he do this?  He does not really know what he is getting into because he has not been on the inside track of Washington long enough.  That flashy new car has not been road tested enough in order for anyone to make a solid judgment on its reliability.  Don’t get lulled into buying that flashy Audi S4 when a more reliable Ford Fusion will do just as well, you can actually afford it, and you will support the American economy better.

I think the marketing metaphors work here as well.  Computers have a different kind of marketing attached to them to get you to buy new systems even if you don’t need them.  Cars target different kinds of people which is why there are so many models.  McCain is going to go after the person who probably should be driving a reliable Toyota, but would rather go for the domestic equivalent if the option is available, but who sure as hell can’t afford an Audi or pay for the insurance even if given one.  The point is that both will be selling their product to initiate a sense of desire in us to buy their product rather than the alternative.

Very little of this marketing will have to do with the issues.  You won’t vote for issues, you will vote as a consumer of a product you only think that you need, but are you sure you know why you think you need it?

In a very short piece on the Today Show this morning, it was reported that the toll of dead and missing in Myanmar is now up to 60,000. The Kansas City Star published an AP report this morning:

Corpses floated in salty flood waters and witnesses said survivors tried desperately to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails. The U.N. said some 1 million people were homeless in the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma.

“Basically the entire lower delta region is under water,” said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

“Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water,” he said. This is “a major, major disaster we’re dealing with.”

This is something that makes even Katrina pale in comparison to the devastation these people will now have to suffer for many years to come. In America, we simply do not understand how good things are here in comparison to most of the world, and especially the developing/third world. Following Katrina we heard more stories about people placing blame, crying racism highlighted by Kanye West’s comment “George Bush hates black people”, and more whining than was appropriate or helpful. Yet there we sat as the richest nation in the world completely able to help ourselves in the midst of such disaster.

This is something to keep your respective political complaints about the economy and how Iraq makes you ill, how George Bush is the coming of Satan, Hillary v. Obama V. McCain, etc. in perspective. Pause to understand that you - that is anyone who can read this or has time to - have it better than most in the world despite all of it.

The people in Myanmar do not have the luxury of complaining. It is unfortunate that the government seems to think business as usual is proper. The people do not, or likely will not have the strength to place blame for their situation. Many will now be forced to live in an enviroment where disease is more common than food and clean water is the most cherished luxury of all.

So far it is a blip on our news radar in between Lindsey Lohan’s sexual escapades and The Spears’ family values expressed in drunkenness and teenage pregnancy.

Pray for Myanmar if that is all you are able to do this morning.

So my feed was not working due to a little thing we call the .htaccess file.  The permissions were messed up when I tweaked something and it thus broke the link.  It basically has to be “more permissive” in order for the feedburner plugin to write properly.

Sometimes when you try to make something better, you screw it up more.

You know, kind of like the Bush “stimulus” package.  No one is really going to use it to stimulate much of anything other than debt reduction and savings.  And by the way, any good accountant will tell you that what you need to do with any “found money” is to put it towards savings or debt!  The prez is reinforcing stupid fiscal policy in our homes with this crap.  Nice “trickle down” effect eh?  I feel bad for the next president whoever that might be.  It will be the same position as his dad who was stuck with the same economic behemoth of debt from Reagan.  Bush 1 cleaned things up just enough for Bubba to take a lot of the credit for it his first few years.  Just like Reagan, Bush II has taken a balanced budget and screwed it up.  Sooooo much mess to clean up here.

Well, my wife and I are putting up a fence in our backyard.  Doing our civic duty I guess.  Better than using it on porn or booze even though that would stimulate the economy as well.  After all drunks gotta drink and porn stars gotta eat…

Revdarth posted a review of Through a Screen Darkly and followed it with an interesting list to add to the listmania that is the blogosphere o’ fun. He says:

It did get me thinking as I finished last night about my “transcendent” film experiences. … (E)ach were ones that left me sitting there, as the credits rolled, feeling like I had experienced something I had not before.

So of course that got me thinking too. Here is my list o’ films that I could not and cannot really shake. You will notice a lot of parity between my list and Ed’s. We watched many a film together at seminary and share an almost identical taste. Though I think I have an overall darker sense of transcendent film experience. And more off-beat.

• Blade Runner
• 12 Monkeys
• Schindler’s List
• Saving Private Ryan
• Platoon
• The Shining
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• 21 Grams
• Mulholland Dr.
• The Matrix
• The Cell
• One Hour Photo
• Vanilla Sky
• O Brother Where Art Thou?
• Children of Men
• Alien
• American Psycho
• Eraserhead
• Sunshine
• Donnie Darko
• Punch Drunk Love

(I have not yet seen Crash, Magnolia, No Country for Old Men, or There Will Be Blood. My kids have other ideas for what to do with my time these days!)

If you put me in a room with just these movies to watch over and over again, I would thank you!