Recently a friend asked me to review the program Merchants of Cool, produced by Frontline about six years ago.  The teenagers targeted in the marketing as midriffs and mooks by MTV and others are now young adults.  Here is a bit of the article about the program:

In "The Merchants of Cool," correspondent Rushkoff details how MTV and other huge commercial outlets orchestrated the rise of Limp Bizkit–despite the group’s objectionable lyrics–and then relentlessly promoted them on-air.

But in doing so, critics ask, is MTV truly reflecting the desires of today’s teenagers, or are they stoking a cultural infatuation with music and imagery that glorifies violence and sex as well as antisocial behavior and attitudes?  In today’s media-saturated environment, such questions, it seems, are becoming increasingly difficult to answer.  "It’s one enclosed feedback loop," Rushkoff says. "Kids’ culture and media culture are now one and the same, and it becomes impossible to tell which came first–the anger or the marketing of the anger."  Therein lies the danger of today’s teen-driven economy, observers say: As everyone from record promoters to TV executives to movie producers besieges today’s teens with pseudo-authentic marketing pitches, teenagers increasingly look to the media to provide them with a ready-made identity predicated on today’s version of what’s cool. Rather than empowering youngsters, the incessant focus on their wants and desires leaves them adrift in a sea of conflicting marketing messages.

"Kids feel frustrated and lonely today because they are encouraged to feel that way," Miller tells FRONTLINE. "You know, advertising has always sold anxiety and it certainly sells anxiety to the young. It’s always telling them that they are not thin enough, they’re not pretty enough, they don’t have the right friends, or they have no friends…they’re losers unless they’re cool. But I don’t think anybody, deep down, really feels cool enough, ever."

Cityview is working through the Sermon on the Mount these days.  I have been drawn to the fact that the economy of lust, anger, contempt, throw-away relationships, and casual words prevailed in Jesus’ day as well.  In fact Jesus identifies these as ways to contrast the Kingdom of His presence with the kingdom that seeks His absence.  Jesus challenged the prevailing notions of righteousness in the sermon by identifying how the religious superstars had dressed up the gaping darkness of their hearts.  The greater righteousness or goodness that Jesus envisions in His followers comes from His transforming presence in their hearts.  When a Jesus follower is confronted with the common situations of life that provide temptation into anger, contempt, lust, throw-away relationships, casual words, and revenge they will pursue a different way because they are at home with Him.  (For those familiar with Dallas Willards, Divine Conspiracy, you see his influence in this perspective on The Sermon.)

Herein is a great challenge for us.  Merchants of Cool highlights the fact that immense amounts of money, creativity, and research are being invested in the promotion of all these common problems of the heart.  For some twenty-somethings who have grown up on this media diet, the darkness of the heart has become a high standard of real life.  You are really living when these mark your days and nights.

A stream of thoughts:  I think Miller is right.  The prevailing feeling in these young adults is a nagging sense of uneasiness or anxiety.  However I think the problem is common to the darkness. And therefore Jesus still is the most attractive God around; He shines through the darkness.  Cool is about belonging.  It is belonging defined by voices that pursue life as if God were absent.  Belonging to Jesus does not have to be presented as cool.  Rather belonging must be experienced in a series of encounters with His followers through grace and truth-telling.  The longing to be with Him is common to all as "eternity in their hearts."  But, the longing to Be with Him who made us, must be given a voice in the stories and conversations of His followers.  Thus, these who are habituated to the economies of lust & anger, may be drawn by the Holy Spirit to the sacrificial love and transforming power of Jesus Christ. 

What do you think?