One of the things that manages to wind me more than anything else is self-promotion. Okay, I admit that on one level having a blog could be seen as a form self-promotion, so I'm probably talking to myself as much as anyone else when I write this post...
I'm constantly aware of the self-promotion of the web - sometimes facebook status updates make me cry out, 'Does this person have no shame!' as they blatantly self promote. I'm sure this is true of me too!
I was also listening to a talk from GB a few days ago, it lasted about 30 minutes and the person did nothing but self-promote. And no, I'm not going to tell you who it was...I was embarrassed listening to them!
Don't get me wrong, I think that it's right to celebrate what we do well but a level of honest humility is needed too.
Anyway, I was reading a book recently that was recommended to me a Greenbelt, the book is called 'The Spirit Level' and explores inequality within society and suggests that a more economically equal society is better for all people, those at both the top of the income scale and those at the bottom of it. It argues that many of the problems in society, from obesity to education are due to inequality, but and most significantly that this effects the whole of society not just the poor. The rich are also less content in an unequal society. Their levels of anxiety, depression and health also get worse.
Anyway, one of the conclusions of the book was about self-promotion, arguing that one of the consequences of an unequal society is 'Evaluation Anxiety'.
'Greater inequality seems to heighten people's social evaluation anxieties by increasing the importance of social status. Instead of accepting each other as equals on the basis of our common humanity as we might in more equal settings, getting the measure of each other becomes important as status differences widen.'
Tags: self-promotion, Benedson,
Ben, this hits me at a deep level. I am profoundly embarrassed and also feel cheapened by self-promotion. At the same time, I do a lot of writing and really believe in it, but how will people know it's there if I don't tell them about it? Guess I need an agent or a PR person. (Do you think Max Clifford's free?) Or somehow self-promote in an ironic, self-deprecating way. Any advice? Is there a helpful distinction between promoting myself as a person, as opposed to promoting a product that I have had a hand in?
Posted by: Andrew Wooding | November 09, 2009 at 10:21 AM
This brings to mind a certain rather well-known Christian with whom I worked for eighteen months. I listened to three of his sermons. At the end of all three I knew who he fell in love with aged fourteen, all that he had achieved in his career, and his vision for the future of his Christian organisation. Was there any Biblical reference or mention of Christ in any of three sermons? Of course not.
He's got another book out. I couldn't help notice it had its own stand in Wesley Owen. Its title is a play on a popular tv series where self-publicising is the way to success. Did it surprise me? Not one jot.
The question is, how do you network and share ideas unless you let people know you want to share them? Doing theology should never be an isolationist activity in my view. I think perhaps there is a balance to be had. Perhaps we should ask at all times, am I doing this for myself or am I doing it for the glory of God? If the answer is the former perhaps we should revisit and revise until we know it is the latter.
Posted by: Janet | November 09, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Andrew - I struggle with it to! I think that I'd prefer to hide my light that embarrassingly self-promote...I think it's simply about keeping that inner check on ourselves and being aware of it.
Janet - I know who that is!!!
Posted by: benedson | November 09, 2009 at 02:33 PM
hi,
don't mean to be a pain, but what's so bad about self-promotion? Like, actually. Ben and Andrew, you both admit you need it, you're also both good british stock and find it embarassing! SO what's actually wrong with it?
Posted by: Laul | November 09, 2009 at 03:01 PM
p.s. hi Janet,
but did people meet God when he spoke? Its the great leveller.
[p.p.s. i'd just like to point out i am neither por-self-promotion or telling people from a stage who you fall in love with]
Posted by: laul | November 09, 2009 at 03:03 PM
I don't think it's bad but i have a concern when our identity is so fragile that we need to big ourselves up. Surely our identity and our security should be in God.
It's also that whole I wanna be a christian celebrity thing which really winds me up, I can't see how that is glorifying to anyone other than self, and I see in Jesus a person that always pointed away from himself to the father.
I think that we're called to be signposts and far to often we can't point to ourselves rather God.
Posted by: benedson | November 09, 2009 at 03:22 PM
Having worked as an editor in Christian publishing for 10 years in the 1980s and 1990s, I can safely say that at that time (and maybe even now) Christian publishing only existed because of the Christian celebrity thing. We published books by people who had x,000 followers, irrespective of whether they actually had anything to say or not. As someone who takes his writing and craft seriously, this was majorly disheartening.
Desperate to know who Janet's talking about!
Posted by: Andrew Wooding | November 09, 2009 at 03:40 PM
hi, while I agree very much with the sentiments you express, I'm kind of struggling to think where an 'equal' society exists currently that the book you mention can draw its conclusions from. Yes this is an unequal one where the rich are prone to the malady of infinite aspiration and so on, but where do the equal societies exist that the writer compares with the unequal? Or is it theoretical?
Posted by: Simon | November 09, 2009 at 05:10 PM
Actually, no, they just wondered what he was trying to get at. The context was a church where everyone there had been members for a number of years, and i think he was trying to tell them that he was just like them so they would trust him. I'm not sure that's ever a good reason to preach a sermon, Surely the Word properly preached would have done the job far more effectively...
Posted by: [email protected] | November 09, 2009 at 05:56 PM
The book is based on sound quantative studies, with this conclusion coming from the disparity between the fact that between 1950 and 1980 there was a 68% rise in the happiness that teenagers said that they felt but there were increasing levels of anxiety, depression and other symptom of unhappiness during this time. What was the cause of that? The authors claim that we have an unhealthy self-esteem or threatened egotism and that one way to cope with this is to promote a level of happiness that is not really there.
They compare Japan with the USA, (Japan being the most equal and USA the most unequal in rich market economies) they claim that in Japan people are far more likely to me self-critical and put there success down to the other factors rather than themselves. Whereas in the USA people are more likely to attribute individual successes to their own ability...
One issue that I have with the study is that it is so western...
Posted by: benedson | November 10, 2009 at 08:32 AM
Thanks Ben, that's interesting.
Posted by: Simon | November 10, 2009 at 06:15 PM