Emphasis Preaching Journal

A recent soft drink commercial is very revealing of the attitudes of today's society. Two teenagers are fiddling with a television remote control unit near a vending machine. A customer comes up to the machine to buy a can of the soft drink, and deposits his money. Just then one of the youths points the remote at the machine and presses a button. The machine withholds the product from the customer, who becomes irate and in his rage begins to abuse the machine. He stops short of doing serious damage, and stalks off in frustration, having been robbed by the machine and denied his refreshment. When the customer is out of the picture, the youth activates the remote control unit a second time, the soft drink pops out of the machine willingly, almost eagerly, and the two youths enjoy their triumph over both machine and the middle-class oppressor whose money paid for the drink. The commercial may work as an advertisement for the soft drink, but what does it say as literature? Is it merely a fantasy, an entertaining short story about getting what you want any way you can? Does the end justify the means? Or is it a comment on common, normal behavior? If the machine doesn't work, I'll abuse it to make it work. If I don't have the money to buy the drink, it's okay to take it from someone who does, if I don't get caught.
-- Mosley