I have a dream. That someday I will be successful in my chosen fields. reasonably wealthy and happy, while at the same time not being famous. It seems as though the current standards of media and the needs of large media companies for content has created a cultural situation in which we are willing to entertain ourselves with any human rain wreck with wash board abs, or a funny accent or who will simply abase themselves in any way to be on TV.
So please allow me to say, fuck that. I hate that whole business, not only does it lower the cultural bar , it also creates a situation where people who are professionals in the business find it hard to get work. (Writers and directors for example.)
For a brief moment I was excited to see the History channel would be running a show similar to Discovery's Biker Build Off. The original version of this show had two custom motorcycle builders making an original bike in ten days. from the ground up. Now being a motorcycle fan, and a lover of quality craftsmanship I loved that show. It had enough drama to fill most any given show. Making a motorcycle is anything but easy and doing it in ten days causes plenty of drama. I loved this show because it featured people actually showing skill and building things.
So I read the description for History channels show and in about three sentences lost interest. Long story short its much like the old discovery show, but you can feel the fingers of the producers adding new elements. Where the builders are sniping each others team members to work for them or sabotaging each other. Long story short, to anyone who knows the business, a whole lot of fake stuff added by the producers to keep things interesting.
It's what they like to call "enhanced reality."
I'm kind of sick of enhanced reality, I have a very profound fear that it, and it's world view are beginning to effect our own. If you think I'm over stating that take a look at "Dude/bro" culture for a while then compare it to the old Jersey shore or a number of other shows.
Maybe it's just me but there used to be a time that to be a celebrity you needed to do something that was worth celebrating. Negotiate a treaty, win a war, cure a disease something that people could actually be impacted by.
Now we have people who are famous for being famous. You know who they are, so no need to drop names. We are in a world surrounded by sex tape diva's, stars famous for punching out their girlfriends, Joe the plumber types who people actually listen to and of course more and more reality show stars who frankly seem to have no other functional skill then showing up on time and being willing to do anything for the camera.
The annoying part about Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame comment is that by and large most famous people these days either can't fill the fifteen minutes or have you praying to see 14:59 on the clock five minutes after being introduced to them.
Meanwhile there are so many people doing amazing things. Working to end hunger, going out to parts of the world and vaccinating people so they don't get or spread diseases, and helping the world to be a better place.
Ya know the sort of folks you're average reality show producer could give a fuck about. A while back two friends of mine told me they watch "Here comes Honey Boo Boo." because it made them feel better about themselves. I love them both but seriously I did nothing to hide my world sized level of disappointment at them as people.
Here's what makes me feel better about myself. Going out and doing stuff, and encouraging others to do so. Maybe we should help convince some other folks to do the same. Then we can all smile as this horrible culture of celebrity dies off like the dinosaurs.
If not my biggest fear is we are headed toward this very quickly.
Idiocracy "OW my balls!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment