Surreal-ity Television

Sometime I question if talent really is necessary to become successful? Then again, maybe success is too often conflated with fame? The sheer volumes of reality shows about the lives of famous people who are no more remarkable then the majority of people living in your neighborhood pervade network television. The ingenuity of what was reality television has been replaced by the inanity of their distorted version of reality. This is a scary scenario where the target audience is at their most vulnerable and impressionable stages of their lives. It’s not the commercials that are dangerous to the future generations. It’s the obsessive’s, sociopaths, addicts, and extremist that are available 24/7 on television, internet, and your smart-devices of choice. These aforementioned narcissists have endless advertising partnerships and product deals-- to sell their perfumes, and clothing lines. If it was just MTV/VH1 it would be one thing, but the educational channels such as History and TLC have joined the dark side. This transformation isn’t much different than the migration of network news to becoming entertainment more concerned with ratings then fact-checking the powers-that-be. I can’t personally complain because I am not innocent. The consumers are the problem. The television is the enabler. As our phones get smarter we get dumber and we are okay with that in the spirit of simple is better. Albert Einstein once said, “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler,” a great quote now relegated to the Quote-Garden online. Along with the samplings of Kim Kardashian, Larry “The Cable Guy”, and Sarah Palin. We really need to pay attention to what our kids are watching, hell—what we’re watching… I had to check myself at the door and wonder if I am just getting older and too conservative in my age. No, there really are shows about do-nothing heiresses and people that buy shit out of a vacated storage unit. Just because you are good at basketball doesn’t mean I should care what you do in your spare time with your spoils. Oh you were famous in the 80’s, I don’t give a damn how your life has changed since you blew your money on hookers and blow. Now if it was a show about the hookers and blow…maybe. Now we post every little action, every thought, and every bodily function on the internet for the masses. We push our religiosity and provincialism onto each other through inaccurate internet communiqué and tired witticisms. We have surrendered our creativity and individuality for cyber individuality and creativity. We have been beguiled by our own vanity, and it’s gone too far. We want to live these fantastic lives with the blonde on one arm and the gun, basketball, or microphone in the other. Now this blog has been an exercise in my vanity, and I don’t pretend to deny the hypocrisy. I do however want to point out theirs! Let’s hold ourselves to a higher standard people. Oooooh! Dancing with the Stars is on.