Kim Kardashian, selfies, and the cult of physical perfection

Kim Kardashian is a potent prophetess for the contemporary pagan worship of Venus. She earns millions serving the goddess of beauty and sex. In 2015 she published a book Selfish, packed with her self-portraits, her very best selfies. A selfie is a photo that one takes of oneself, typically taken with a smart phone and then shared on social media. In 2014 that noble game Scrabble accepted the word.

What can we learn from this popular evangelist for Venus?

To begin with we need to understand her dynamic, pulsating, shameless pagan faith. We live in a society that idealises physical perfection. Many today crave the perfect body which exudes sexual energy, libido and lethal attractiveness. This faith can be traced back to the ancient Greeks who understood their gods to be incredibly hot and insufferably good-looking. Ordinary Greek punters were desperate to imitate Gorgeous Venus and Handsome Mars, the god of war.

So they started the Olympic games. By throwing javelins, discuses and running naked, these novices would start to look like the gods. Achilles was the supreme Greek warrior who most closely resembled the gods. He was the living embodiment of divine perfection. And his dad was Zeus! Achilles and his chums basked in the wondrous glories of their perfect bodily kits. Chiseled chins and six packs were ubiquitous. And, of course, they sacrificed daily to this fetid idol of physical perfection.

Today we are witnessing a revival in this Greek pagan adulation of the body. We need to notice that this pagan revival has dangerous social explosions.

Looking good?

In 2014 Danny Bowman, 19, spent ten hours a day taking up to 200 selfies on his smart phone. He dropped out of school, lost two stone trying to look ‘perfect’. Finally in despair, he took an overdose but was saved by his mum. In this mindset individuals are focused on the secular salvation of their bodies. The individual body must be worshipped and appeased. We must sacrifice to this fickle body god.

In short we become desperate slaves to our demanding bodies.

The narrative goes like this: “If my body looks good, I will be saved. I will prosper and find the perfect mate. I will be a winner. If my body looks inferior I will be rejected. I will be a lonely Billy no mates. I will be a loser.”

Ordinary lads like Danny are being discipled by Kim Kardashian and her many celebrity friends who share her tawdry faith in Venus.

Consider the tragic story of Sarah Burge who has spent £500,000 on plastic surgery for herself. She has promised her young daughter, Poppy, that she can have plenty of operations when she is 18! Sarah is living in this dark pagan story. She is desperate to emulate the current canon of beauty and she sacrifices to Venus on a daily basis. She is also discipling her daughter Poppy to follow Venus.

This aggressive pagan faith is nurturing a generation of young people who are filled with shame, anxiety, and self-loathing. Discussions about mental health completely ignore this.