The Marketplace of Ideas

Check out Axis' Marketplace of Ideas video!

The smell of fresh squid hangs in the air. As I walk along I am confronted by at least a dozen other smells ranging anywhere from the aroma of a delicious beef stew to the stench of a rancid fish tank. Then, of course, I’m faced with the option to buy socks, sunglasses, t-shirts, baskets, tea pots, corn dogs, bean sprouts, window curtains, pancakes filled with red bean paste, eggs, an octopus, and the list goes on. As you might imagine, I am in a marketplace.

For two and a half years I lived on the island of Jeju in South Korea, and going to the market became a common practice since everyday I had to walk through it to get to my apartment.  It’s fascinating to think about just what is happening in the market. Everyone is trying to sell me their stuff, and trying to persuade me that I need it. But there are so many choices. Of course, I can’t be convinced to buy everything. That’s absurd. Irrational. And yet every vender wants me to buy. On multiple occasions an old woman would hand me some type of fruit, hoping that once I experienced it I would be convinced that I needed it. And every vender was the same, and yet their version of persuasion was customized in order to attract buyers.

We live in a marketplace. Each one of us. This marketplace is one that we cannot enter and exit as we please. It’s huge and inescapable. It’s so big that it covers the surface of the entire earth. It is The Marketplace of Ideas. 

Venders are selling us ideas everywhere we go. We are handed ideas that claim to satisfy our desire for success, happiness, true love, and purpose. But how is it that we often seem to skip the process of being a smart shopper in this vast marketplace? Before buying fruit at a flea market, or shoes at a department store, I understand the importance of examining them. I’m going to make sure the fruit is good. I’m going turn the melon over, give it a good thump, smell it, and maybe gently toss it from one hand to another in order to best determine its quality and decide if I should choose a better one. With shoes I’m going to try them on, walk a lap around the shoe store, jog in place for a few seconds, etc. I want to make sure I don’t regret my shoe decision.

Every idea that we buy shapes who we are, and reveals what we treasure. We think so rationally about fruit and shoes, but often shop blindfolded when it comes to ideas. Aristotle is attributed to have said “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  In 1 Corinthians 14:20 Paul says “...do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” By thinking well, we are able to make sure that we don’t regret the ideas that we purchase.

As Christians we should relish the opportunity to seize every idea and examine it before we buy it. And let us not think and analyze just for the sake of thinking. Rather let us desire to think for the sake of knowing the Truth, and in turn loving God and loving others. We cannot exit the marketplace of ideas, so perhaps we should learn how to shop well and purchase the best items being sold.


- Daniel Giddings, Team Leader -

The Hunger Games

To watch or not to watch The Hunger Games? That is the question many parents, reviews, websites, blogs, and Christians have raised since the release of the film. But maybe it’s the wrong question to be asking. . . .

Based on the book by Suzanne Collins (first in a set of 3), the movie is set in future North America, where the citizens of Panem are forced by the Capitol to live in Districts in third-world conditions and to work backbreaking labor jobs that keep the Capitol and its citizens wealthy and well fed. Each year, these Districts must participate in the “The Hunger Games,” a ritual imposed by the Capitol as a reminder of the deadly consequences of trying to rebel. Each District is required to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to the Capitol, where they are put into an arena to fight to the death.

Reminiscent of works like George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games books raise many questions about governmental control, morality, sacrifice, reality TV, and entertainment, to name just a few. Admittedly, Collins wrote these books for young adults between the ages of 10 and 20, so one should not expect such literary genius as can be found in these classics, but even the older readers will find the books compelling and hard to put down.

Interestingly enough, the emergence of the books seems a bit serendipitous in timing. There are many who believe that the US could already be in the early stages of a country similar to Panem. Even if one finds that idea a bit too far fetched, we must all recognize that such conditions currently do exist in North Korea, parts of China, and elsewhere. But even more difficult to swallow is the reality that the idea of people killing other people for sport and entertainment has existed for centuries, with the Roman Coliseum being most prominent. But how did the Romans get to the point where the masses had no qualms about watching others kill each other for fun? And is it possible that it could happen again? What needs to be done to prevent it?

Questions like these and many more should arise in one’s mind after reading the books. And since the movies are such close adaptations of the books, they have the potential, indeed the power, to ask questions and question assumptions in much more poignant ways. But the question remains: will they? And even if they do, will our youth notice these questions? Or will they be too “entertained” to notice?

Understandably, some students are not yet ready to tackle certain concepts and abstract ideas; only you, as the parent, can know exactly what your student is capable of handling. But if he/she is ready to handle them, then you are doing him/her a disservice either by not allowing him/her to watch it OR by allowing him/her to watch it with no questions asked. Both of these reactions are polarizing and extreme in the case of The Hunger Games. There is a middle ground, which is to engage the subject matter with your student. Rather than imposing more boundaries and rules, see this as an opportunity to allow your children to grow, mature, and live up to the responsibilities God has given them.

If you happen to have students who are begging you to see the film or read the books, use it as an opportunity to not only oblige them but give them some homework. That probably means you’ll have to read the books and watch the movie, as well as have meaningful, intentional discussions with your students about the content. But isn’t all the work worth it? Isn’t it much better to raise students who actively engage and think about culture, who could one day drastically change culture for the better or prevent a world like in The Hunger Games from becoming a reality? (A quick suggestion: tell your students that if they want to read the books, they must also read some or all of the classics that deal with the same subject matter.)

All in all, approaching the books and movies in this way means more work for viewers, especially parents. But since when were we, as followers of Christ, supposed to passively become part of (or disengage from) the world around us? To learn or not to learn from The Hunger Games? Maybe that is the question.


*poster comes from http://www.upcoming-movies.com/Articles/the-hunger-games-gets-yet-another-movie-poster/

Why Students Walk Away From God In College

According to the stats, the majority of students walk away from God in college -- why is that and what can parents do about it? Find out more on The Axis Podcast.

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