And the merchants of the earth weep and
mourn for [fallen Babylon], since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of
gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth,
all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of
articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense,
myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and
chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
Revelation 18:11-13
The
above list of good traded by Babylon looks innocent enough until you get to the
end: ‘…and slaves, that is, human souls’. Unfortunately, this translation in
the English Standard Version fails to quite captures the routine of the
original Greek language. In Matthew 10, Jesus uses the same phrase to make
another Point: ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ Babylon may not be
able to kills both body and soul in hell but in this world it can trade in
them.
I said
last weekend that I expect St John’s imagination would have struggled to cope
with the idea of trading in justice or rainwater. Similarly, past generations
have not fully understood trading in people’s bodies and souls, which is why
the above passage is often translated as referring to slavery. I think it is
quite possible that even today, we are not in a position to grasp all it means
but one way is by manipulating the ways that people think, their characters and
personalities, their natures and temperaments their likes and dislikes – even,
who they are!
Modern
marketing, advertising and sales pressure can do this to a large extent: an
advertising executive once said famously, the purpose of good advertising is to
make us feel like losers for not buying the product!
Sigmund
Freud’s advances in phycology, which were intended to help people with mental
and emotional problems, empowered advertising, transforming it from simply
publicity for goods and services into a tool that can create the desire for
them. It sought to circumvent people’s rational and create emotive hooks,
drawing them into purchases like a fish into a net.
When Abraham
Maslow formulated the hierarchy of human needs in 1943, advertisers began
exploiting them to persuade people to buy what they did not need and did not
previously want. They challenged and undermined the need to survive, to feel
safe, to belong, to be valued and to be fulfilled as a person.
I will
continue this thought next weekend but, in the meantime, you might try to see
how you, your needs and wants, your aspirations and ambitions, your likes and
dislikes, may be being manipulated in the pursuit of profit.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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