“Sweetheart, what do you want for dinner?”
“I don’t know, what do you feel like?”
“I don’t care, whatever sounds good to you.”
“Well, I don’t care either, and I asked you first.”
We have conversations like this all the time, don’t we? We often don’t really know what we want to do next.
But there are powerful media leaders who know exactly what they want you to do next, and next, and next, for the rest of your life. In fact, they have a plan for every minute of every day of your life, from before you were born, to after you are buried. They know what you should eat, drink, and wear. They know what you should think about, believe, and worry about. They know how you should spend your time. They know what your priorities should be, and how obsessed you should be with current fashions and trends. They know what kind of car you should drive and that you should borrow money to get it. In fact, they know that you should borrow money for just about everything, so you can have it all quicker.
They know that you should be focused on short-term pleasure more than long-term happiness. They know that you should focus on feeling good right now instead of sacrificing to make a positive difference in the world.
They know that you should accept their definition of “freedom”—which is the ability to do whatever feels good at any moment without consequences. And they help you learn that by feeding you a constant stream of increasingly sexualized and violent content, 24×7.
They want to save you the trouble of thinking about hard problems for yourself, so they boil things down for you into soundbites that help you agree more quickly with their agendas. Economics, government structures, morality, even faith systems, are really hard to work out—and they ultimately get in the way of how much fun you should be having or what is next on Netflix, so don’t worry about those things. At least, not in detail. They will provide you with the headlines that keep you feeling educated and the celebrities who eloquently espouse their values in ways that you can’t help but agree with, especially as you partake of whatever substance they know you should be free to imbibe.
All the while they’ll tell you that they want you to be happy, to live in a fair and just world and that they want to keep you safe and free and give you the chance to find a “meaningful” purpose. While they’re telling you that, they’ll be selling you something to quickly feed your short-term desires, or amplify what you’re worried about right now.
You see, if you don’t know what you want to do, you will be led to the most profitable end—profitable for those who do have a plan for your life, that is.
So, what do you want? Are you willing to take the time to seek a life purpose that is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and good, which ultimately leads to the highest good for God and everyone you impact? It’s hard work, and will push you to delve into your deepest motives. But the result will be much more valuable that drifting along—unintentionally—led by powerful media leaders who would shape your desires into what is most profitable for them, at your expense.
