A Fleeting Identity

I have begun to revisit portions of Christopher Lasch's 1980's national bestseller titled, "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectation." I have not read the book in its entireity just different chapters. However, it definitely is a profound and insightful read despite its age. In the chapter, "The Socialization of Reproduction and the Collapse of Authority," he states, modern advertising seeks to promote not so much self-indulgence as self-doubt. It seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them; to generate new anxieties instead of allaying old ones. By surrounding the consumer with images of the good life, and by associating them with the glamour of celebrity and success, mass culture encourages the ordinary man to cultivate extraordinary tastes, to identify himself with the privileged minority agianst the rest, and to join them, in his fantasies, in a life of exquisite comfort and sensual refinement. Yet the propaganda of commodities simultaneously makes him acutely unhappy with his lot. By fostering grandiose aspirations, it also fosters self-denigration and self-contempt. The culture of consumption in its central tendency thus recapitulates the socialization earlier provided by the family (180-181).
This quote reminds me of an intriguing statement made by Brad Pitt as "Tyler Durden" in "Fight Club." He says, We're all raised on television to believe that one day, we're all going to be multimillionaires, movie gods, and rock stars...but we won't. And we're figuring that out now.The culture of consumption creates a fleeting identity. When the imagery of being someone on television, in the movies, or a musicial artist does not come to fruition the result is a fleeting identity problem. What the Lasch quote is saying is that the family was the primary source of providing this needed identity. But because the family is being decimated it does not provide the needed indentity to its members. Therefore, media has become the conduit of providing a sense of identity. But because the identity is only fleeting it proceeds down a path of nothingness and meaninglessness which is where "Tyler Durden" found himself.
From a Biblical worldview each individual can only find their true indentity in Christ, thus, God uses the family as part of the process. Paul in his letter to the Colossians exhorts them to understand that their identity is wrapped in Christ. In chapter two verses eight thru ten he says, See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete.