There’s a show on Netflix that I’ve really enjoyed, one that you likely haven’t watched. It’s called, “Car Masters: Rust to Riches.” It’s about a custom car shop, and as you might guess, they take an old beat up car and fix it up. I was mentioning the show to a friend, and he said that he too had been watching and enjoying it. But it was what he said next that really stuck with me. He said, “I enjoy seeing what they build, but wow, they really sell the drama.” I hadn’t thought of it before, but as I reflected on the episodes I realized that he was right. I thought I was watching a fix-up-an-old-car show, the reality was I was watching a drama.
Manufacturing drama is basic storytelling practice. The first scene sets up the problem, then to get people hooked you tell them what is at stake if you fail to address the problem. The bigger the stakes, the better. People will tune in to see or hear about what just might go really, really wrong. In Car Masters they couldn’t claim life and death was at stake, but they would get to a point where something didn’t go as planned and suddenly there’s a problem to set up drama. Then they would describe the repair in such a way as to say, “If we don’t do this next step right, the whole build will be ruined, we’ll lose all our money and be our children will be sold into slavery.” Okay, I’m exaggerating, they didn’t really say that, but the point is they really did overstate the difficultly of the repairs in order to sell the drama.
What I observe is that actually we are constantly being sold the drama, and frankly, we keep buying it. Not that this is anything new. Newspapers have said for decades, “If it bleeds, it leads.” We love the drama and I think I’d go so far as to say we as a species have a drama-addiction problem. Think for just a moment about what the news reports. It used to be that the news would report the facts. Something happened. These days so much of what the news does is tell us what to think about the something that happened. Or even worse, they tell us to be scared of something that hasn’t even happened yet! They’re speculating about the future.., what if Trump does this?! It’ll be the death of democracy! It’s the basic recipe for drama. They’ve given you a problem, Trump, and the stakes are democracy itself!
Of course, it isn’t just Trump and Car Masters. There are endless examples of how the media feeds off our hunger for some drama, but I’m here to encourage you to take the needle out of your arm that is pumping drama through your veins because I think the Writings tell us that living hopped up on the latest potential catastrophe is a sign that we’re not really picking up what the Lord is putting down. You see, we are supposed to be at peace, to have a mind that is as tranquil as a glassy lake. We read in Secrets of Heaven 3696,
Moreover at the beginning of his life… every man is in a state of tranquillity; but as he advances in life, that is, grows up to manhood, he removes himself from this state, because he gives himself up to worldly cares, and consequently to anxieties caused by the cupidities of the love of self and of the world, and the derivative falsities.
Wait, why are we not in a state of tranquility? Because we have given ourselves up to worldly cares. Now, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but the Writings give a pretty dim view of involving our minds in “worldly cares.” Swedenborg wrote once that when he had to do basic physical world stuff like paying bills that it hindered his ability to see into the spiritual realm. So you really are inhibiting your spiritual connection when you focus on “worldly cares,” and I’d suggest that news, social media and the like would count as “worldly cares.”
I think part of the problem is what the media does with the drama it creates. You see, it doesn’t raise us up, but I think it rather tends to inflame even lower tendencies within us. It sticks with the basic story line: here’s the problem, here are the stakes (and they’re massive!), and anybody who doesn’t see that this is the solution is a [insert your series of ad hominem attacks here]. We know that these attacks aren’t good… we shouldn’t be calling people racists, fascists, or any of the many “phobes” that get thrown about, but it feels good when we’re told that we’re right. Yet, I don’t recall where Jesus says we are to glory in being right. Maybe that’s because He doesn’t. We are warned though that we can and do enjoy evil.
Infernal fire is also delight, since what a man loves and lusts after he perceives, when he obtains it, to be delightful. Man’s delight of heart is from no other source. Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight that spring from these two loves [self and the world] as their origins. The evils flowing from these loves are contempt of others, enmity, and hostility against those who do not favor them… (HH 570)
Right… so we’re enjoying our love of the world, which leaves us in a more vulnerable spiritual state and next thing you know we’re dealing with a hellish push to make us love ourselves too. What really jumps out for me in this passage is that last little bit where it speaks of, “hostility against those who do not favor them.” That to me is exactly where this media driven addiction to drama leads. We start thinking that people who are on the other side of these issues are our enemy, and it happens because we have chosen to believe the media narrative of what is actually at stake.
If it makes you feel any better, the Lord knows that we’re going to struggle with this whole “focus on heaven” thing. The Writings teach us that we start with a proprium, which is sometimes translated as “man’s own,” “selfhood,” or even “ego,” and that at the start this proprium is hellish. Our job during this life is to convert it to a heavenly proprium. Unlike a Netflix fix-it-up show though, this process isn’t complete in an 8 episode season. It takes a while. But there’s a payoff, or, I should say, the stakes are massive!
The person who is given a heavenly selfhood enjoys too a state of serenity and peace, for he trusts in the Lord and believes that no evil at all can come to touch him, knowing too that no strong evil desires can molest him… they enjoy bliss and happiness, for nothing exists to disturb them – no self-love at all, consequently no enmity, hatred, or vengeance at all; nor any love of the world at all, consequently no deceitfulness, fear, or unease at all. (AC 5660)
How does that sound? Pretty good, right? Key to it all is trusting in the Lord that no evil can touch us. This is the opposite to the drama narrative. They’re saying evil is definitely going to touch you. No, they’re saying if something doesn’t change, evil isn’t just going to touch you, it’s going slather itself all over you, your children and grandchildren! It’s going to be bad, real bad. So here’s where you have to make a choice. Are you going to continue with your drama addiction, letting the media and news get you wound up over what is and isn’t happening? Or are you going to choose a life of bliss and happiness knowing that no evil can touch you? What choice do you think an angel would make? If you want to be an angel someday, you might want to start practicing now.