Chesterton had a quote that has always stuck with me. There are two ways, he said, to get enough. One is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.It seems to me that the latter is the path of the ascetic Christian life and is popularized in eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. The former is the way of the world. These two have always been in tension and the political world will NEVER, as a prescription, seriously advance asceticism. Austerity measures are never politically popular. People do not want to change their consumer habits and are not going to.It falls to religions to teach and embrace voluntary simplicity or poverty.

It's been true in advertising for some time that sex sells.But (as per Sandel) we are now a market society so the issue is far more pertinent.As we've moved tp be less comunitarian and empathic, it's much easier to be ll about me and my desires.And money talks all the louder to that across so many areas, including, I suspect, religion.

Should I respond to a Vanguard ad and save more money or should I allow myself to be "brainwashed" by a Commonweal book ad and therefore spend more money? The latter ad no doubt underwrites essays and posts denigrating advertising so it's obviously a very difficult moral calculation.An observation from George Stigler, University of Chicago economist:"Advertising itself is a completely neutral instrument and lends itself to the dissemination of highly contradictory desires. While the automobile industry tells us not to drink while driving, the bourbon industry tells us not to drive while drinking.... Our colleges use every form of advertising, and indeed the typical university catalog would never stop Diogenes in his search for an honest man."

To witness the success of the manipulation of sexual desire in ads for cars, we only need to go back a few days and read about sex and cars on dotCommonweal, compliment of Fr Imbelli: http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=18810-Toyota Cressida, (medieval slang for woman of ill repute, based on the unfortunate classical lady) -Epstein writes: My son Mark claims that I bought the Pacer to keep him from any chance of having sex on dates while in high schoolfor no respectable girl would be found even necking in a Pacer.-wont name my favorite car from my youth. [] The interior was designed by very clever grown-ups with youthful passengers in mind. The driver and passenger seats both folded down to touch the rear seat. -My first car was a 1960 Triumph TR-3, the one with the beautiful lines and all else a young bachelor needed to fly with the wind, top down.

Do Catholics participate in movements such as the Buy Nothing day?How about a Fortnight to rediscover the Freedom from Possessions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Stuff"The movie "The Story of Stuff" presents a critical vision of consumerist society, primarily AmericanThe video is divided into seven chapters: Introduction, Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, Disposal, and Another Way." But I do not see any chapter about the generation of desires by ads. They appear to have skipped that dimension.There is a text by the Vatican about ethics in advertising: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_...'s a relevant paragraph:"Communio et Progressio contains this summary statement of the problem: "If harmful or utterly useless goods are touted to the public, if false assertions are made about goods for sale, if less than admirable human tendencies are exploited, those responsible for such advertising harm society and forfeit their good name and credibility. More than this, unremitting pressure to buy articles of luxury can arouse false wants that hurt both individuals and families by making them ignore what they really need. And those forms of advertising which, without shame, exploit the sexual instincts simply to make money or which seek to penetrate into the subconscious recesses of the mind in a way that threatens the freedom of the individual ... must be shunned.""

Capitalism no more "manipulates" our desires (what doesn't manipulate our desires?) than governments that alter our incentives and issue endless PSAs regarding whatever the currently powerful bureaucrats want, or than churches that try to channel our energies and shame or praise us into certain beliefs, or than parents that try to mold their children and influence them, or than educators that try to get us to like literature and simplistic understandings of the world (read a social studies textbook. Gawd.). Good or bad, "manipulation" happens from all corners. I'm glad the folks are Commonweal know all the good ways, only. Or the good folks at First Things. Or our prelates, apparently.

Here's a poem by Richard Wilbur that I just used in the concluding lecture in a course called "The Rhetoric of Advertising":Matthew VIII,28 ff.Rabbi, we GadarenesAre not ascetics; we are fond of wealth and possessions.Love, as You call it, we obviate by meansOf the planned release of aggressions.We have deep faith in prosperity.Soon, it is hoped, we will reach our full potential.In the light of our gross product, the practice of charityIs palpably non-essential.It is true that we go insane;That for no good reason we are possessed by devils;That we suffer, despite the amenities which obtainAt all but the lowest levels.We shall not, however, resignOur trust in the high-heaped table and the full trough.If You cannot cure us without destroying our swine,We had rather You shoved off.

Thanks for this. I teach a high school course on Catholic Ethics and I include a unit on media literacy precisely for this reason. My experience has been that my students find it incredibly revealing and liberating to start to identify the ways in which they are being manipulated. We study the techniques that advertisers use (the Frontline documentaries "Merchants of Cool" and "The Persuaders", both available for free on Frontline's website, are very helpful in this regard) and then I have the students collectively deconstruct advertisements in class. It's fun for the kids, but they also tell me afterwards that this exercise changed the way they experience the media they consume.I have found that the media literacy unit (of which advertising is only a part) sets up the unit on social justice very nicely because the students have already begun to examine their over-consumption and the financial incentives of those who promote it.

Cathy, Include in your debate bishops, priests and leading Catholics. The first statement you should have them discuss is why they all believe that "Poverty Sucks." With that mentality the job of the advertiser is easy.

Does anybody besides me remember the episode on "Thirty-Something, in which Miles, the cyncal boss everyone lOves to hate, loses his temper at the holier-than-thou "good guy" (the one with dark hair) and reminded him vociferously that he too was manipulating people in exaxtly the same way and to the same end that Miles did.Great performance, one of the great mOments of TV.

How to attract young people to church. Let's take our cue from ad professionals. Would those be acceptable ads, I wonder?"Sunday Mass at the Cathedral with organ, choir and incense: how to impress your date without spending any money!" "Research has shown that boys who pray come across as deep and thoughtful, and that attracts girls. Going to Mass will help you get laid!"

The preferential option for the poor starts at home, regarding both sexuality and capitalism. It is at the core of scripture and ancient spirituality that has guided (should have guided?) certainly Catholic Christianity since the self-donation of Jesus. It has inspirational power (deep and contemporary) to heal both selves and structures. It should be a phrase that introduces and directs the majority of discussions, again at least from a Catholic stance, of any topic - personal, social, economic, political, moral. Why do we hear the phrase so little any more? Too demanding, I suspect, of both church and culture.

Way back before there were the "seven deadly sins" there were the "eight bad thoughts" of the desert mothers and fathers. These were more inclinations or tendencies or common human weaknesses than acts. And lust was not one of them. It was identified as a form of greed or, as put by Kathleen Norris, "the desire to possess and use another inappropriately in pursuit of one's own satisfaction."

"desire, advertising and ethics"Wittingly or unwittingly we ( human beings who have reached a certain degree of intelligence and emotional development are conferencing on these subjects every day, in some way or another.I'm surprised Cathleen's blog has attracted only 14 comments so far.I thought in a country that gave us Madison Avenue (and its TV spin-off Mad Men) there would be deluge of comments.I'm in no position to guess why there has been such a paltry response to such an insightful blog.But I know why I'm commenting.As a cradle-catholic who still practises I believe that children should be taught from the earliest age that they are each a bundle of desires.And I wouldn't limit this teaching to what the Catechism of the Catholic Church unhelpfully refers to as "The Disorder of Covetous Desires."When I was attending primary school in the 1940s I was taught that "desire" was a tool the devil used to turn me away from God and all that was good.What deleterious brainwashing that was.Burdened with this sort of warped thinking I judged all advertising to be bad because it was aimed at making me desire something I didn't really need, or if I did need it I needed a particulary expensive one, or one that would make me feel better than other people, etc.I was 16 before a Jesuit priest introduced my Religious Knowledge class to the place advertising played in the economy. How can a producer sell anything if nobody knows his product. And good it is. And how better it is than another producer's.Abuse of desire and abuse of advertising are what we have to look out for and this requires prudence.Of the four fundamental virtues, following Aristotle, prudence, courage, justice and temperance, prudence is the least understood. I have listened to many sermons and homilies over my long life and in four continents and I have never heard a preacher or homilist talk about prudence. Courage, Justice and Temperance - especially Temperance - were given fair coverage, but of their sister Prudence not a word.Of course I haven't mentioned the problem of the "brokenness of human nature" by which self-interest places the satisfaction of one's own desires before those of others.So ingrained is this selfishness that "greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend."

Joseph Q. ==Prudence is indeed a problem. It's what guides us when there is no clear=cut answer to a question. But how do we know it when we find it? Where does it come from? Some say we get it from experience, but even similar experiences are not exactly the same. Prudence is about situations that are shot through with particularity, of that I'm sure. Some say prudence is a kind of insight. Well, what kind of insight? And, again, how do we tell it when we find it? Prudent people are said to be "wise". But what is wisdom? More generalizations? Or maybe prudence is insight into which moral principles to apply in a given situation? Most people seem to think that prudence leads mainly to timidity, that it's a matter of knowing what not to do. Is this so?Hmmm. The questions never end.

The Book of Proverbs has some interesting things to say. It begins:Proverbs 1New International Version (NIV)Purpose and Theme1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:2 for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,[a] knowledge and discretion to the young5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.[b]7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools[c] despise wisdom and instruction.So what do riddles have to do with wisdom?

Ann Oliver: Thank you. You have made it clear to me why there have been so few sermons or homilies on the virtue of prudence.The English Romantic poet William Blake gave Prudence a bad name in "Proverbs of Hell"."Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity."Prudence is the enemy of speculation.Prudence takes time to weigh up the pros and cons of any situation.Prudence is not popular. It slows things up. It asks questions. It sees life not in terms of black and white, but as various shades of grey.Prudent people know/intuit when others are trying to manipulate their desires.Why be prudent? Because Prudence helps one protect one's self-respect while showing respect for the other - especially if he is trying to sell one something.