About a year ago, maybe two, I detailed just why anyone would want to spend their time watching an episode of The Bachelor, which I'd call one of the worst television shows around for its underlying racism, retrograde views on romance and attractiveness, ridiculous propagation of fairy tale love standards and general level of disregard for viewer intelligence. However, we have a hell of a lot of channels out there, so I'm not sure it's even one of the ten worst. For one, it's entertaining, for reasons I detailed earlier. Basically, it's like any party: you walk into the room and immediately make judgement, who you think you'll like, not like etc, and then you work the room a little bit and get to verify your opinion or have it be amended or tossed in the hopper for further consideration.
It's probably not particularly laudable or moral to toss a bunch of attractive people together with some booze, force them into awkward romantic situations and then film it. However, a lot of things we do in western society, particularly if you're of a religious or humanitarian bent, aren't particularly laudable or moral like owning a nice house or car when you could be donating that money to food for the hungry or some other campaign that helps people less fortunate than we are. These sorts of intellectual conundrums are a large part of why we surround ourselves with people of similar persuasions, educations, beliefs, and income brackets. Anything else is uncomfortable. And let me tell you, as a twenty-first century middle class American there is nothing I abhor more than being made to feel uncomfortable.
Besides which, intellectual justification here: these people are paid pretty decent sums of money to appear on the show, which they know is filmed. So, unlike some NSA type spying, they've signed a monetary contract that basically gives up their right to privacy and lack of judgment in exchange for money and the possibility of being minorly famous and parlaying that into a role as the host of a future reality show or local DJ in the LA area. And, if the past few years have taught us anything, selfie, facebook, etc. it's that one of the most important things in life is to be "famous." While many people gently intellectually chide this idea, it's also impossible to deny its mass appeal. Whether you're a writer, weather person, cultural critic, dancer, musician, rich banker, being more famous or followed is appealing. It's a validation. I mean, even Jesus was pretty famous in his time. It's okay to want people to be hearing you, right? Even if what you have to contribute is a bathroom mirror selfie or a vine of you falling on a piece of ice or skiing into a bush. In a way it's an embrace of ephemeral nature of life, an f-ck you to the reality of our own brief and random bit of existence.
Let's do it!
The internet and proliferation of television shows has allowed for a proliferation of our own personal news and views to be broadcast to the tens, or thousands, or however many people are interested in reading your tweets, or feeds, or whatever. And perhaps, in a way, it's like that glimmer of hope in "Dumb and Dumber," so you're saying there's a chance that makes us desire this fame. The impulse isn't always devoid either of hope, sometimes people are trying to use a loudspeaker to broadcast political, personal, or spiritual views that are good, or potentially good piece of information. The pope has a large loudspeaker, and he's used it in the last year to say some really important things if we're going to live together in some semblance of peace.
Of course, in this current world climate, which involves way more global type communication than we've had in the past, it's not always easy to remain comfortable. In fact, in order to be a decent, and I mean only in an intellectual sense, type of person you have to change your opinion about things in order to be consistent. For instance, for a long time, I was uncomfortable with the idea of two men loving one another. This was partially based on the small town that I grew up in, a Christian background, and the fact that I did not have that inclination in the slightest. As such, the idea made me uncomfortable. It's certainly relevant to ask just how much my particular opinion mattered, but I suppose it matters as a very small representative sample of a large subset of people. As the Pope has recently said, "Who am I to judge?" Now, for some people that probably doesn't go far enough and for others it goes too far. And yet, I think it's going to be damn near impossible about twenty years from now, maybe less, to have an opinion that is any different than letting people be. What has humanity ever gained by hating or disparaging one another?
I think we can agree to disagree about economic issues, how the government should best disperse funds, whether or not we should have traffic cameras, or continue to mutilate our resources for the short-term energy gains, but I don't think we can disagree about things like equality and non-discriminatory practices. It's the boat and we're all in it now. That being said, there will still be plenty of nuances within that subset to have endless arguments over how right we are and how wrong other people are for interpreting data in a way that is different than ours, such as: what are we supposed to do with Syria? But again, these are the sorts of questions that are best discussed over a long evening or pushed down by the avalanche of data and television right at our fingertips. With all of that rolling around it's probably time to handicap another season of the Bachelor.
It's probably not particularly laudable or moral to toss a bunch of attractive people together with some booze, force them into awkward romantic situations and then film it. However, a lot of things we do in western society, particularly if you're of a religious or humanitarian bent, aren't particularly laudable or moral like owning a nice house or car when you could be donating that money to food for the hungry or some other campaign that helps people less fortunate than we are. These sorts of intellectual conundrums are a large part of why we surround ourselves with people of similar persuasions, educations, beliefs, and income brackets. Anything else is uncomfortable. And let me tell you, as a twenty-first century middle class American there is nothing I abhor more than being made to feel uncomfortable.
Besides which, intellectual justification here: these people are paid pretty decent sums of money to appear on the show, which they know is filmed. So, unlike some NSA type spying, they've signed a monetary contract that basically gives up their right to privacy and lack of judgment in exchange for money and the possibility of being minorly famous and parlaying that into a role as the host of a future reality show or local DJ in the LA area. And, if the past few years have taught us anything, selfie, facebook, etc. it's that one of the most important things in life is to be "famous." While many people gently intellectually chide this idea, it's also impossible to deny its mass appeal. Whether you're a writer, weather person, cultural critic, dancer, musician, rich banker, being more famous or followed is appealing. It's a validation. I mean, even Jesus was pretty famous in his time. It's okay to want people to be hearing you, right? Even if what you have to contribute is a bathroom mirror selfie or a vine of you falling on a piece of ice or skiing into a bush. In a way it's an embrace of ephemeral nature of life, an f-ck you to the reality of our own brief and random bit of existence.
Let's do it!
The internet and proliferation of television shows has allowed for a proliferation of our own personal news and views to be broadcast to the tens, or thousands, or however many people are interested in reading your tweets, or feeds, or whatever. And perhaps, in a way, it's like that glimmer of hope in "Dumb and Dumber," so you're saying there's a chance that makes us desire this fame. The impulse isn't always devoid either of hope, sometimes people are trying to use a loudspeaker to broadcast political, personal, or spiritual views that are good, or potentially good piece of information. The pope has a large loudspeaker, and he's used it in the last year to say some really important things if we're going to live together in some semblance of peace.
Of course, in this current world climate, which involves way more global type communication than we've had in the past, it's not always easy to remain comfortable. In fact, in order to be a decent, and I mean only in an intellectual sense, type of person you have to change your opinion about things in order to be consistent. For instance, for a long time, I was uncomfortable with the idea of two men loving one another. This was partially based on the small town that I grew up in, a Christian background, and the fact that I did not have that inclination in the slightest. As such, the idea made me uncomfortable. It's certainly relevant to ask just how much my particular opinion mattered, but I suppose it matters as a very small representative sample of a large subset of people. As the Pope has recently said, "Who am I to judge?" Now, for some people that probably doesn't go far enough and for others it goes too far. And yet, I think it's going to be damn near impossible about twenty years from now, maybe less, to have an opinion that is any different than letting people be. What has humanity ever gained by hating or disparaging one another?
I think we can agree to disagree about economic issues, how the government should best disperse funds, whether or not we should have traffic cameras, or continue to mutilate our resources for the short-term energy gains, but I don't think we can disagree about things like equality and non-discriminatory practices. It's the boat and we're all in it now. That being said, there will still be plenty of nuances within that subset to have endless arguments over how right we are and how wrong other people are for interpreting data in a way that is different than ours, such as: what are we supposed to do with Syria? But again, these are the sorts of questions that are best discussed over a long evening or pushed down by the avalanche of data and television right at our fingertips. With all of that rolling around it's probably time to handicap another season of the Bachelor.
INDEED WE ARE ALL IN A BOAT TOGETHER..BUT SOME ARE MAKING HOLES WHILE OTHERS ARE PATCHING HOLES
ReplyDeleteOTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR LAND WHILE SOME ARE LEANING OVERBOARD THROWING UP
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