“Things are getting interesting…” This ad campaign FASCINATES me. The image to the right graces a billboard in Jersey City that I see all the time. Commuters from Jersey to NYC see it just before they get to the Holland Tunnel. The first time I saw it, the message blew my mind. It seems to be saying, “These girls might kiss…or at least touch each other. You know why? They’re DRUNK!” The message is clarified (and made weirder) by the ad that plays, animation style, on the wall of the PATH on the way into the city. Two women get closer and closer, grabbing each other’s necklaces, and generally acting like they’re about to tear each other’s clothes off. This ad features a creepy guy, hanging in the background, watching the proceedings. “Things are getting interesting…because these girls are DRUNK!”
Romans 3:10-12 says, “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Jesus talks about this, too: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matt 23:27).
As stringent as this sounds, all it’s really saying (for our pithy purposes) is that the drunk you might be the real you. There are good reasons to cover it up, but Remy Martin seems to be encouraging you to let it out. Remy Martin is appealing to Freud’s id, to the basest part of all of us, the part that wants to see what two attractive people will do to each other when too drunk to stop themselves.
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12 responses to “Drunk and Interesting: Human Nature?”
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Wow! Great post.
I don't even need to get drunk to have the real me come out. Last weekend I was at a local 7-11 owned by a family from India. Their credit card reader wasn't working and I couldn't get gas or ice. Later I went home and made breakfast. As I was carrying things into another romm I spilled everything on the floor. Anger and frustration started to overtake me and I tried to let it go but couldn't. I was afraid of what was going to come out of my mouth, and for good reason. I blamed my clumsiness on the owners of the 7-11 in a very X rated fashion.
“…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Nick, what about the ontological change that occurs with belief? 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells me that "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
Am I a new creation? or am I an old creation masquerading as a new creation?
Is Christ in me actually the hope of glory? or is it an illusion? and I am forever consigned (or at least in this life) to not believe that I have been made new by God?
For the man without faith in Christ, his identity truly is "racist" or "drunk." But is that not where the good news of the Gospel comes in? For those of us who have been given the gift of faith, are we not now changed into "beloved" and "saint"?
I would disagree with you and say that Christian theology suggests that if you have faith in Jesus Christ then you are not the stranger, but are the beloved child of God.
I continue to act like the stranger I once was, and I hate that. I hate it because I have access to the God of the Universe through his love for me, and instead of using my access I hide from God. BUT, that does not mean that I am a stranger. "Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)
John B –
You're totally right. "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). I guess I'm talking about the "Old Adam"'s death throes. In Romans 7, when Paul is talking about doing the thing he doesn't want to do and asking for a savior from this body of death, he's speaking as a Christian. Certainly, when Luther talks about our being at the same time justified and sinner, both things are "real." And praise God, the Holy Spirit is active and bringing righteousness out of my life. However, I find the preponderance of my "real" actions (certainly all of my considered ones) to be completely twisted and broken. It is certainly real and true that I am dead and raised to new life in Christ. In "real life," though, as it is used in common parlance, the "real me" is a much darker thing that the me you would know if we met.
If only my id was that sexy. This is one of the best posts ever on M.B. Great Work, Nick.
As Luther said, the Old Adam is drowned in baptism… but he's a very good swimmer.
Some would argue that this is a particularly American, puritanical take on drunkenness. The Japanese seem to love it without remorse, as do 99% of northern Europe, along with even the younger generation in Italy, where I understand pub crawling and early morning passing out is currently in vogue. Except for the "mean drunk" of the yob variety, it can be a secular, temporary state of grace. That is why it has such an appeal.
I was flipping through "Weedon's Blog" yesterday, and he had posted a note on Luther's list of "what is meant by daily bread" in the Small Catechism… it includes "self-control." Thought that was an applicable concept.
just for the record, this isn't a post on drunkenness. I've gotten some feedback about other cultures and their approaches to intoxication. All I'm suggesting is that the "real" you may be different (and darker) than the "you" that you'd like others to know. I'm sure this is true across culture lines.
Luther and company rightly talk about our being, at present, simultaneously righteous and wicked, so those 'monsters from the id' (for those of you who can remember that cool Science Fiction film, "Forbidden Planet") are very, VERY real. It's only God's mercy and redemption that rescues us from amounting to nothing more than creatures forever defined by such misery.
Recommendation: have a look at the Old Adam blog, where this is also often discussed:
http://theoldadam.wordpress.com/
Nick- Your point is well-taken as to the "real you" that sometimes comes out with a few beers, etc. The warts we would all like to pretend are not there sometimes appear with drink. The drink doesn't make them, just reveal them. On the other hand, I think that many people like to drink, etc. because it relieves for a time the stress of judgment they feel, and actually makes them less judgmental toward others. This is the "grace" element to drinking that is so attractive to many people. Of course it's fake grace, but in a totally secular world, fake grace is better than no grace at all.
Well put, Nick. I think it's a continuing debate – because I don't think that ALL we are is what we are when drunk. As it says in Ephesians 5:18, (going from memory here) do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the holy spirit.
As I ponder about that verse in relation to what you shared, I imagine that verse talking about a tainted glass. (I love analogies… bear with me here?)
Let's go with the example of a blue glass? And no matter what you put in the glass, it's going to be a bit blue – how blue or how deep/dark, or how clear and transparent a blue, depends. It's still going to be different from a clear glass, but the reflections and variations are affected by what you put in it.
So, maybe the issue isn't as much "who" we are? I think we tend to obsess in America about individuals – that each person is so uniquely them and that defining and "knowing" ourselves is of utmost importance. But maybe that's just the glass – an outer layer. What you taste when you drink from the glass is not dependent upon the appearance. Maybe the important thing is what we do with what we have, what elements we know of ourselves, and how we find something to fill us. Both literally and figuratively!!
Throughout the bible, we see that Christ wants us to separate ourselves from our families, our obsessions, our temptations, our divisions and our illusions of self-importance. As it says in Galatians 3, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." How frustrating, that God keeps us from rooting for our "team" if you will – besides that of God Himself. We are to learn to be prisoners, slaves to the holy spirit and God's will (though, surprise surprise we fail), to let go, to die like Christ died for us. To find life in the resurrected Christ, not a powerful leader who does what he wants and "follows his heart" (to me, the "heart" is really just impulsiveness and immediate gratification for most people)…
Anyways, "you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3) I think these ads sell a false idea of being "alive", "enjoying life", and "having fun" with sin which will tear apart, confuse, depreciate, and wreck havoc on the body, emotion, and mind.
Needless to say, it understands the innate desire in humans to be "bad".
Hmmm… very interesting. Thank you for making me think about all of this 🙂