For insight into popular self-absorbed ethics and the fear it involves, listen to the lyrics of The Fear as sung by Lily Allen:
I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and f**loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them
_
And I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
‘Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track, yeah I’m on to a winner
_
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I\’m being taken over by the Fear
_
Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
And that’s what makes my life so f**g fantastic
_
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And its not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track, yeah we’re on to a winner
_
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by the Fear
_
Forget about guns and forget ammunition
‘Cuz I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I’m getting thinner
_
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by the Fear
After expressing the lust for wealth and possessions a sobering note is added: “I heard people die while they’re trying to find them.” There is a willingness to use one\’s body to achieve fame and to cauterised one’s conscience in the process: “And I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless.” Life is superficial and nasty, but this can be endured if one has credit cards. There is a failure to take personal responsibility for one’s own contribution to encouraging massive consumption, because “it’s how I’m programmed to function.” There is an out-and-out refusal to see oneself as a sinner. All that matters is being successful in one’s own self-seeking mission. And it is very important in today’s society for a woman to aim for a slim body.
Yet with all the rationalisations so skilfully brought together in these clever lyrics the chorus sounds the note of underlying disquiet:
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by the Fear
Underneath it all is the acknowledgement of disorientation, an inability to discriminate between what is right and what is wrong. Notably, it is implied here that whatever decisions one might personally make along these lines there is that which is right and that which is wrong in an of themselves. Further, the inability to know what is right and wrong means that one has no basis for evaluating one’s own emotions. Yes, she can look in the mirror and feel she’s on the right track and on to a winner. But can such feelings be trusted? What does a healthy emotional life look like? There is anxiety expressed as to whether it will ever become clear as to what is right and what is wrong. Fear overtakes her as she senses there is something fundamentally wrong with her life and that in some form or other, there will be a reckoning.
These reflections were inspired by Rachel Thorpe’s article in Evangelicals Now (April 2010), which drew my attention to these lyrics.
Posted April 13, 2010
www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au
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