Californication

I wasn't quite sure what the issue was. My roommate Scott and I were driving back from the grocery store, and we passed by (idled by, more like it. Ridiculous traffic.) a billboard for Shotime's program "Californication." We got into a discussion of all the trash that is on TV now a days, and somehow it shifted to the word itself, Californication. Those of you with word processors will note that the "word" Californication has one of those bright red squiggly lines beneath it. "Squiggly" doesn't even get one of those. It was my understanding that Californication isn't even a real word. Its the title of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 1999 album, the title track, and also of David Duchovony's tv show on Shotime. Scott, however, had a completely different perception of the word and its meaning.

He is from New York, and recently moved out to California to attend Talbot seminary. He insisted that Californication was, in fact, a real word. More so, it held reliable and consistent meaning and connotation universally. Such a thing blew my mind. "Californication" has never held any real context or meaning. After Scott pulled up some definitions off of urbandictionary.com, he seemed to have a point. The word did in fact have some loosely understood definition. I had to know - was I just ignorant, or was this a cultural thing? In order to figure this whole conundrum out, I inquired of twenty friends what their understanding of "Californication" was. I made sure to get as broad a spectrum of friends as possible; Christian and non-Christian, male and female, those groudned secularly and those raised in the church, those raised in California and those who weren't, as well as those who are currently living outside of California and within.

Before moving on, let's clarify one thing: urbandictionary.com is by no means an authority. However, it is a conglomoration of ideas from across the globe at defining slang terms. In this particular instance, it happened to show support for Scott's concept of what "Californication" meant.

From the twenty-two individuals surveyed (we included Scott's opinion and my own), only three people came up with a definintion similar to the one presented online. There was Scott, one friend of his from New York, and Justin Griffin. Everyone else who responded to the question came back with very little input, ranging from "gay sex" to "the things you do that would only be accepted in California." Several individuals came back with comments to the effect that they didn't feel that the word had any definition, or that they had never really considered it a word. One individual referenced it as nothing more than the song and album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The most debaucherous of the responses ws "It means that our states is getting screwed so much that its very name is becoming synonymous with getting screwed."

Urbandictionary.com had this to offer:

Californication	385 up, 58 down
	Western society's pop culture and media encroachment and spread all over the world. In particular, the negative aspects of media and culture originating from within the United States' 31st State: California.

Californication	252 up, 40 down
	The spread and influence of western memes and culture, esp. that of California, across the world. Especially focusing on the selling of sex. Made of the words "California" and "fornication"

The "up" and "down" comments are signs of agreement or disagreement. From the numbers, it looks like about 85% of urbandictionary users can agree that the term Californication has something to do with the spreading of western culture and the obsession with sex, hollywood, and celebrities.

Based on the responses, Californication is not a real word, nor a term. But it does have a somewhat accepted idea behind it, and a disgusting one at that. We can't deny that the entire world is getting caught up in the disillusionment of Hollywood. People are overly-obsessed (that's right overly obsessed) with celebrities and their goings-on. The paparazzi, magazines like US Weekly and tv shows like TMZ are all culprits in this debacle, liquifying the minds of their viewers and readers, feeding the presumed importance of movie stars. Even worse, they are creating in the minds of today's youth the importance of being famous, important, becoming some kind of celebrity. I'm guilty of having had daydreams in my youth of becoming someone famous, but this is something different - we're being fed these thought from every side. Its being treated as something crucial. Something that we should all be wanting.

Californication: our world becoming obsessed with fame, fortune, and celebrities to the extent that we're loosing touch with who we are as a people. We loose ourselves to this faux world of glamor and stardom. I can see now why we don't have any real context for the word, we live within the definition. It is only by living in another culture that is being drowned out by Hollywood's onslaught that such a thing can be seen. Perspective is everything.

*special thanks to Adam de laRiva, Gloriann Boni, Anna Cofman, Leigh Cara Hussman, Ken Shrout, Thomas Ariston, Rad Beauton, Joshua Castleman, Abel Gutierrez, Patrick Grafton-Cardwell, Cody Griffin, Justin Griffin, Scott Ahern, and his friend from New York whose name I've completely forgotten.