Markets, fahion, and Evangelicalism

Again NPR's Planet Money has inspired my blog post.  This time the podcasters discussed the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, a British economists who came into prominence during the Great Depression.
 
One of Keynes big ideas was about how market speculation works.  In his The General Theory, Keynes describes an unusual beauty pageant in which the audience votes on the most beautiful face. However, before the vote is to take place the audience is told that those who have voted for the person who wins will also receive a prize.   This changes the psychology of the situation.  No longer will the audience simply vote for the person they find to be most beautiful, but they will try and determine who everyone else might think is most beautiful.  Or even more strategically, will try to assess who everyone else thinks everyone else will think is the most beautiful (ad infinitum). So in the case of markets, investors don't look at the essential soundness of an investment, but how sound/interesting that investment may seem to other investors.  Because, more investors will drive up stock prices.  This is the kind of situation that leads to economic bubbles, and as we have seen in the last years bubbles always burst.

This kind of psychological game is essentially the logic of fashion.  The way most of us participate in fashion is essentially by looking for clues from others about what they think is fashionable, and they in turn look for their cues from others still.  And what is our culture if not fashionable.  The logic of fashion is present from the academy (cognitive science is now in vogue) to the supermarket (organic/local food movement?). 

And of course the logic of fashion is often present in the evangelical church.  We often strive for cultural relevance not by seeking a sustainable and sound approach to our culture, but by trying to find out what others have done, or what people might think is cool.  This might lead to short term church growth, but is this just a bubble that will burst.  How do we engage a society that has at its core the logic of fashion without getting caught up in that logic ourselves?