On that same note, my mom watches Celebrity Rehab, and my brother watches Cops, and when I tried to express my displeasure at this, they defended themselves and claimed it was just entertainment and that it was actually very interesting. But that's just the thing.
Well, they can't help themselves if they are drawn to that sort of stimulation. Many people are. They will construct arguments to justify that subconscious fact just as readily as I can construct an argument to justify my own aversion. Is it a subconscious tendency that is on a large scale an agent of societal disintegration? Or is it really just entertaining and maybe even useful as a glimpse into the workings (or failures for that matter) of our society. I must take note that the only reason I am at such a tense point of mediation between the two possibilities is because 1.) I have a strong emotional aversion to that sort of outlet and 2.) I have loved ones that are drawn to it, thereby providing two very strong opposing emotions of perhaps equal force. Our emotions have quite a say in our convictions don't they?
To go with my own interpretation, I would say that that is a form of entertainment that trivializes and thus dehumanizes particular forms of human suffering, which starves our own faculties of compassion.
What about a call to action at the end of the show? How about a reminder that yes, these are real people that are going through profoundly painful experiences and how about we look into figuring out how and why this is happening. But no, nothing of the sort. How many people would just sign off after that guilt flood? There's no money there.
Just imagine, you're a star that was once burning true, whether dimly or brightly, and suddenly you are on your decline, hurtling into deep space where you are to fizz out. And the cold, mechanical eye of television is watching your fall, documenting it for millions behind the lens, themselves slouching in front of a glowing screen wearing smirks of amusement.
Maybe some of them cry for you. But what then?
Let me get off my high horse to be more clear. I am one of the crippled. I myself have grown up on these forms of amusement. I feel myself studying this suffering with a touch of abstraction, comfortable in this endlessly conformed suburban colony, shaking my fist and shouting impotently, "someone must do something!" But what? I am comfortable. And I am afraid of suffering myself. I feel vaguely that I have been wronged, but still sit. Passive.
I hope for my sake that part of the action is the thought.
