Awards make me uncomfortable.
The Oscars take place this Sunday, and I can’t think of a more brazen example of self-glorification in contemporary America. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the Academy Awards, and maybe if I ever won something like an Oscar or a Pulitzer Prize or a Nobel I’d feel differently about this whole honoring system. Yet I sometimes wonder if our current, awards-obsessed society isn’t uncomfortably similar to the culture that built the Tower of Babel – the people who believed their achievements matched those of God. At what point does professional praise cross over into blasphemous hubris?
There is something inherently unseemly about awards, especially when they are sought out by the honorees. I’ve worked for newspapers for 16 years, and the annual rite of scouring through a year’s worth of stories and photos and designs, trying to decide which to enter into various journalism contests, has always struck me as an icky task. Likewise, the campaigning that goes on by the studios and stars during the Oscar season reeks of neediness and desperation. Can’t the work speak for itself?
Of course, awards serve crucial functions beyond the flattering of egos. A paper that claims a newsroom full of trophies and plaques will be seen as a more accomplished and trustworthy outlet to potential subscribers and advertisers. An Oscar winner suddenly has new found power in Hollywood, enabling him or her to take on risky creative projects that would otherwise never see the light of day.
Awards have their practical functions, then, but I still see them as necessary evils. And as I watch the starlets parade down the red carpet, reveling in the bright applause of countless flashbulbs, or see the producers and directors standing triumphantly on the stage, hoisting their golden statues high in the air, part of me wonders if we aren’t all getting a little too big for our britches, as grandmas are fond to say. Those giant Oscar statues that stand guard outside the Kodak Theatre during the Academy Awards ceremony seem to be getting taller ever year. How long until they reach as high as the Tower of Babel?
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Comments (7)
1) Validation, both for the artists and fans. I like discovering a film like Good Night, and Good Luck, a $8M picture, and seeing it recognized for the excellent piece of filmmaking it was. I'm sure George Clooney, having attempted to mortgage his own house in order to make the film, appreciated the acknowledgement of the film's value; whether or not someone is egotistical, we all like some form of validation.
2) Discovery of new films. It seems like most years a film is nominated for awards and is "discovered" by moviegoers, which can catapult the film into profitability, expose lesser-known films/filmmakers, etc. I know I probably would not have watched The Reader had it not been nominated for Best Picture last year. (Of course, I didn't actually LIKE it, but that's beside the point. :-)
My aside in #2 actually brings up another point: movies and awards are fun to argue about. Worst Best Picture lineup ever? 2000. Worst Best Picture award ever? Titanic. Biggest Best Picture snub ever? Fargo.
See? I bet we could argue for hours on end about just those three statements. That doesn't make it idolatrous, though for some people it will be (just as anything else in life can be). Examine a fallen world and you're just going to see that sort of self-aggrandizing.
Anyway, I think I kinda just restated a lot of what you said and I got a little sidetracked.
Awards are a very Biblical concept. I like em.
God has an Oscars award ceremony as well. There is an awards platform with places of honor awarded to various individuals. Then there are a variety of awards for best performance in a variety of different categories. There are awards for doing good. There are awards for those most desirous of His appearing, awards for best shepherd of the sheep and generally awards for things done on earth. However, our most honorable awards for best performance pale in comparison with what Jesus has accomplished, therefore we see the highest honored citizens of heaven casting their crowns at the feet of Jesus. I haven’t seen Oscar nominees do that. Here are some of the details;
But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. Romans 2:10
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. 2 Cor. 5
Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. 2 Peter 5:4
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:25
Jesus said, "Come to think of it, you are going to drink my cup. But as to awarding places of honor, that's not my business. My Father is taking care of that." Matthew 20:23
The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Rev. 4
It would all be fine if people lived up to the description of C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters: "The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another." The difference may, in a crude sort of manner, have been reflected in the contrasting behavior of Kanye West and Beyonce toward Taylor Swift -- none of whom I have much interest in listening to.
A Jewish rabbi has hinted to me that "the city and the tower was a very nefarious project," considerably more than mere hubris in flattering themselves. It may not compare to the sins of the Oscars.