Reality TV, or How Our Stupidity Is Bound To End Us All

The term “Reality TV,” when entered into Google, returns 21,800,000 hits.  “Reality Television” another 3,000,000.  So just short of 25 million hits.  What the Hell is wrong with people?  Seriously.  Albert Einstein said “We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.”  But I’m sorry Albert, if you were subjected to “The Bachelorette” or “Joe Millionaire” you too would begin to despair of humanity.  And if Reality TV is something unpleasant to you, then summertime is the 9th Circle of Hell.  While the few scripted shows that still manage to claw their way onto the schedule take a rest, the B-list of Reality TV shows comes to take a dump on our heads.  Can  you imagine that?  An actual B-List of what is already the Z-list of TV shows.  That’s when we’re blessed with “Dancing With The Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance 2” and “My Fair Brady,” the latter of which I admit I had never heard of until two minutes ago, but it sounds like a true horror.  The standard-bearer, however, for this dreadful spate of swill has to be “Big Brother,” the very concept of which makes the mind boggle when one realizes that millions watch it: A group of normal people live in a house together and we see them sitting around talking to each other.  Well, I am a normal person and my friends are normal people, and if I want to hear a bunch of normal people talking about their normal lives I can just invite them to my house and actually “live it.”  The absurdity of watching a bunch of people I give no damn about sitting talking about their normal boring existence is hard for me to fathom.  One wouldn’t stay and listen to a table of strangers talking in a restaurant for an hour.  So why watch them just because they’re on your idiot box?  And never has that term been more appropriate.  Fortunately this phenomenon has no direct effect on my existence, as summer becomes a good time to catch up on missed movies or, God forbid, reading a book.  The effect is more one of the sorrow it causes me to know that millions of my fellow inhabitants on this planet crave so little in the way of entertainment.  I was going to say that so many of my fellow inhabitants were braindead morons, but then I would most certainly be insulting a lot of readers of this blog…if I ever get any readers on this blog!  The point is, as long as the majority of people find this stuff to be entertainment – and the networks not being stupid, you can be sure that the majority does have a taste for this drivel – I fear for the future of us all.  Hopefully evolution will start taking care of these folks.  Although since, as our president states, the jury is still out on evolution, we might have to deal with the problem ourselves.  I bet he’s an avid fan of The Biggest Loser.

Comments

[Bruce Alexander]

I agree almost completely. Reality TV sucks ass, but it's hardly reality--it chooses casts carefully, is scripted, directed, produced and edited to create scenes of supposed entertainment for the mindless masses who watch, and oogles of money for the corporations that create them. It's all about the money. The bigger question for me is what TV in general has done to our society. Since we're both (GASP!) in our mid-30's we can recall life without 24 hour TV and I suggest if a comparison is made, you might notice the dramatic changes. Like any tool, TV can be used for good or evil, and in my opinion, TV itself has proven to be a distraction from reality, and for those who blindly follow, a powerful method of brainwashing humanity. Of course, I will tune in to the next seasons of "Lost", "Sopranos", "The Wire" and currently watch "Brotherhood", "Family Guy" and too many others to mention, and TV is invaluable for disseminating useful information, and engagng the intellects of thoughtful people, but, to conclude, Reality TV is diabolical shit. (I can't believe I'm getting sucked into commenting on blogs; do you realize what you've done? Don't get me started on the power of the internet.)

[Al]

Be careful or soon you'll be starting your own blog. Life without 24-hour TV? Until I was 11 we had only 3 channels in England and nothing on after midnight or so. But even then the most turgid and supercilious programmes were better than today's Reality TV. I just thought, maybe it's a good thing. If eventually everything on TV becomes completely unwatchable everyone will start doing more productive things. Though I would miss Lost. And you're in your late 30's...nice try.

[Bruce Alexander]

My own blog? Hmmm... No. Bruce, stop it! STOP NOW! Don't get distracted by the charm of the idle rich; you have more important things to do than spreading your own twisted brand of philosophy; you have a novel to complete and two short stories and a TV pilot and a grand plan to be idle and rich yourself... well, more idle and more rich. Get out while you can.