Go to Through the Looking Glass-Here's My Take on It
- Add a comment
- Go to I went to bed celebrating Christmas, and I woke up with a Mennorah
Image is a huge commodity, Terpgirl, but I'm not telling you anything
you don't already know.
posted by
Blanche.
on September 3, 2006 at 7:32 PM
| link to this | reply
Exactly the point, Blache
thanks. Most people get it from the human side, and you get it from that marketing side as well. That's a huge part of it all.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 2, 2006 at 9:25 PM
| link to this | reply
Terpgirl, I've never followed Jackie Mason, but I get the concept.
In the advertising world, it's called "Branding", and all major corporations, like QWEST, State Farm, etc. carefully groom their images, hire hordes of PR people to do focus groups on things like logos, colors of stationery, etc. It's a carefully crafted image, and they don't take it lightly. Whole committees spend months arguing about stationery.
So, for a comedian, who's stock in trade is his image and his persona, not to mention his livelihood, to have that image taken and twisted into something it's not, hurts not only his livelihood, but him as a person. He's not Christian, that wasn't the point of his whole spiel, as I understand it, from what you've explained here, he's mostly making the point that people ought to be able to wish others a Merry Christmas, period. It's a tradition, a recognition of the reality of the holiday. You can try to cover all bases, wish evryone a Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, but it comes out fake and mealy-mouthed, imho.
If Walmart greeters, that bastion of liberality, Walmart, has taken to greeting customers at the front door, "Happy Holidays", it's because they don't want to risk offending anyone, and taking a risk on offending someone is what a comedian does. They're our truth-telling, political court jesters.
An intelligent person never offends someone unintentionally, however, taking someone out of context and twisting their words around to make them seem like someone they're not, in this case, a "Jew for Jesus", (which I am familiar with, and makes sense to me that people with a specific heritage and ideology would form an organization), has done demeans and weakens their message, not Jackie Mason's.
posted by
Blanche.
on September 2, 2006 at 1:35 PM
| link to this | reply
Mike and BlackCat
Thanks for testing the column out for me. I really want to try this and make it work.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 2, 2006 at 1:08 PM
| link to this | reply
Black Cat
I went through this on a person side. I was raised Catholic, went to a Presbyterian church with the family next door, was rebaptized Baptist at 18...you get the idea. I have my bases covered. I really do question and have thought it all through for myself.
I totally get the born again thing, and the offshoot Jews for Jesus which I'll explain later. To go from believing in nothing to believing the possibility of SOMETHING makes sense. My publisher/boss for a decade was raised Methodist. As an adult, he converted to Judaism. I can't imagine going from a lifetime of "yes" this exists in the general sense to "no" I don't believe it at all. He tells me he converted for the concept behind Judaism as much as anything else. Jews are much more socially-society driven, and he likes that. Sort of the "it takes a village" concept. The Christian view is much more every man decides for himself.
As for the Jews for Jesus, I'm speaking to this as a Catholic of origin. Much of my heritage is wrapped up in being a Polish Catholic. Aside from the dogma or the rules, being Catholic to me is steeped in tradition, so while there were things I absolutely didn't agree with even as a child, it represented family and my past.
The Jews for Jesus thing has always hit me the same way. They have a heritage thing, and they identify with this group, yet the "isms" that go along with it just don't sit well. On the surface it sounds bizarre, I know, but just looking at as a Christian who still loves the concept of Advent and things a lot of Christian/Protestant groups absolutely don't recognize, I can see why they hold on to it.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 2, 2006 at 1:07 PM
| link to this | reply
I can't imagine anyone disagreeing that it's wrong to use someone's
image to promote anything without their permission. It's really so simple.
On a side note, I've never understood the concept of "Jews for Jesus." Once Jews start believing in Jesus, doesn't it make them Christian?
posted by
-blackcat
on September 2, 2006 at 12:58 PM
| link to this | reply
I read an interview with someone from the group
and all she could say was "shame on him". She thought he shouldn't get upset over it.
posted by
mikea18
on September 2, 2006 at 12:54 PM
| link to this | reply