OK... by the title of this blog, one might think that I am about to go on a philosophical discussion of the disaster in West Virginia... but I am not...
No... what happened just now was I was channel surfing... and after totally ignoring the other 743 channels I have and checking all the important ones - i.e. ESPN, ESPN2, MSG, Sports Channel, HBO, HBO2, HBO3 & HBO4, IFC, VH1 and E! - I settled on the the old fashioned solution... yes, I went to MTV and turned on 'real world'... or as i discovered, it wasnt Real World but one of the 'derivative' shows - something like Road rules vs. Real world... I dont want to get into the dynamics of this form of entertainment, since if anyone is numb enough to care to know, they already know... and if they dont know... well good for them...
Anyway... whats been striking me about these shows... the 'reality' MTV genre... is the absolute dumbness and ignorance of the participants.... And i dont know if its because I am getting old or just wise... but I thought at least the 1st real world, if not the first 3 seasons altogether were somewhat reasonable shows... from an intellectual perspective.... you know with that racial incident in the first season... Pedro having AIDS in season 2... and of course that British rock dude getting his tongue bit off at a show in the Paris season...
Of course on the other hand maybe I am having selective memory... in season one there was Eric Nies... cant say anymore on this topic except that a few years ago I heard that he had to be treated for depression, which is a stunningly human problem for a former host of the 'grind'.... in season 2 there was Puck and all he had to share with humanity... and then there was that California season with the Irish guy, Dominick, who couldnt stay sober for a single episode... so maybe things at first were somewhat balanced... or at least had some sort of a lean towards serious 'reality'...
now, i am sad to report, 'real world' has become and absolute mirror reflection of american idiocy.... and yes, by saying this i admit that i regularly watch the mindless show... but back to the question at hand... and is it just me, or do they pick the most self-absorbed, melo-dramatic, thoughtless people this country can possibly dream of producing... each and every episode breaks down into some version of either the cast 'doing something' - ie going on a trip, trying to run a business (miserably without fail) or helping underprivilieged kids (not sure if this could be called help).... or a melodramatic breakdown of some kind... such as in the most recent 'real world' denver, Tyree, the tough black dude, tells Paul, the gay christian prima donna, that he thinks travis (or whatever that guy's name is), the other black guy in the house, is a 'white black'... now i am not black myself, nor do i claim myself to have any serious understanding of the afro-american culture (though i do listen to wu tang clan and biggie smalls)... but thats a pretty serious thing for one brother to say about another... and what does Paul, our gay christian prima donna do, but immediately run to the other guy and tell him that his supposed 'brother' called him a white boy.... now i dont know if i am the only one here, but what kind of weak ass behavior is this!? who does this!? what kind of a conniving, manipulative bastard do you have to be to do something like that? and most importantly, why is this guy on TV... is this what America wants to see?
from here i can do endless other analysis of every single cast member... but my point here is not to analyze reality TV melodramatics... my point is why does not a single intellectual topic or question ever come up... why is there no 'dialogue' about anythign except food, work, booze and sex? is this really representative of our great nation and where it currently stands? why is it that so many people in this country cant find on the map not only Idaho, but also Italy... and more importantly - why do they not care!? and i am not talking about some pumpkin heads from Redneck, Nebraska... I am talking about dudes on Wall Street, graduates of Dartmouth and Boston College, who think Nassau, Bahamas is an exotic foreign vacation and that Borat gave Kazakhstani people a keen sense of American life... Shit... is this why our foreign policy is such a god damn mess? because we have a bunch of over-educated ignoramuses running both our government and our businesses...? ignoramuses who might know where paris and even bangkok or ho chi mihn city are... but have absolutely no hope of actually understanding or grasping anything outside 'Cops: Reno' or Sunday Night football...
anyway... this turned into a bit of a rant... but i stick with it one way or another... and on another note... if you are indeed bored and are in desperate need of mindless entertainment... please do yourself a favour and go to VH1... I highly recommend and can personally vouch for both 'Flavour of Love' and 'I love New York'... 'Surreal Life' with vanilla ice is also not half bad....
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