Dodge: A Search Engine for The World Wide World

So this commercial is both ironic and inspiring.

Firstly, its ironic because the commercial fails to mention that in many ways, the Dodge and the Internet are both trying to solve the same problem, not different problems. Vehicles are a technology designed to conquer distance.  As John Dyer points out on his blog by highlighting this quote from Freud:

“If there had been no railway to conquer distance, my child would never have left town and I should need no telephone to hear his voice.”

We get the irony quickly by substituting a couple of words from the commercial:

“If there had been no Dodge to conquer distance, my child would never have left town and I should need no Internet to hear his voice.”

This is an ironic reminder that technologies aren’t created for no reason. Usually we invent technology to help solve problems that our other technologies caused.

On the other hand, this commercial is inspiring for us as Christians because its true that “People don’t make a list of web sites they want to see before they die. They don’t fill photo albums with pictures from an on-line search. Like being there is not like being there.”

Its worth juxtaposing this commercial with 2 John 12: “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”

So thank-you Dodge for the ironic, yet inspiring reminder that we can easily sacrifice the “joy” of face to face fellowship for the convenience of mediated communication.