It seems only a matter of time until we elect our first Reality TV President. We have been seduced by reality TV faces. We adore and idolize them. The so-called "tipping point" is coming. Over the last ten years we have had a parade of reality TV names that have captured our imagination and attention in ways that are hard to describe. Today it is Snooki. Paris Hilton had her moment, famous for her existence rather than substance. Omarosa was famous on Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Famous for being tough and mean...I think. Jon & Kate Plus 8 were famous for being a family. Many faces have graced the TV cameras and captured our attention for reasons we can't explain.
Joe the Plumber had his moment in the sun. He was famous for being an average guy who asked a question about taxes. He was then elevated to star status, referenced repeatedly in the presidential debates. He had no discernible abilities or talents, other than to ask a question. Yet his fame burned brightly until he faded out as a war correspondent during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For reasons unknown, he thought he could be a war correspondent, qualifications be damned. Ironically, we require nothing of reality stars as long as we connect to them. We demand nothing of them and what they say is unimportant. Whether they make sense is unimportant. Whether they are individuals with real talent or intelligence is unimportant. They exist simply because they made that magical connection between a TV camera and an audience.
The trick about this magic is that it's not a trick. It is real. We embrace reality stars without reason. And because it is a baseless adulation, no negatives can dilute our affections. Negatives that are said about Sarah Palin have no ballast. No meaningful critique can harm her. Expose her. Or for that matter, even elevate her. She has reality TV star status. Words have no relevance in our relationship to her. We don't communicate with reality TV stars, and they aren't required to communicate with us. It's the unspoken connection, an electronic embrace, it is a fragile relationship, and faulty at best.
To debate Sarah Palin's abilities and her acumen are meaningless. Words lose their currency. She's impervious to rational critiques. Nothing can be said to shake a supporter who idolizes her. It is ironic that the vacuum tube brought on the electronic age of communication. A reality TV star lives in some strange vacuum. A shield that seemingly protects them from any rational discourse. Nothing can be said that rivals their TV glow. They burn brightly, and their light fascinates and captivates. And oddly enough, just as you can't explain their sudden rise to fame, you can't explain their fade into oblivion. And when we are asked why we cared, we can't remember. To a reality TV star, their only enemy is time.
that vast swaths of the electorate cannot guess the name of the current Vice President of the United States. (Or understand a word he says.)
Many that have high-school diplomas and drivers licenses cannot find Washington D.C. on a map, but KNOW that, wherever it is...its all messed up...
Most know that the Government is headquartered there......
ALL know that the Government should leave them alone and stop getting in their business,....
And that the government needs to DO something about this or that...and those OTHER people over there.
This group, for example sees no irony or humor in the following statement:
" The government needs to keep it's hands OFF Medicare"
Similarly, they KNOW too many people (like immigrants) are getting an undeserved free ride....which should be reserved for those who have EARNED it (by being born here).
They are on a first-name basis with people on reality shows and know the in and outs of of who gets voted off the show, or the island, or the Kareoke stage and all the subtleties and ramifications for the quest for the grand prize........................
Many do not vote (for which we can all be thankful)...because it's too complicated and boring to figure out all that election stuff. More alarmingly, many DO vote.
None are smarter than a fifth-grader
Kill your television....before it kills you
tm
At the Paley Center for Media here in NYC, I urged you to make a documentary that tells the story of all the people and organizations not currently on the public's radar screen but which have the power to make society work much better than it currently does. I think I spoke specifically of the corporate social responsibility movement, which has the potential to channel the public's anger at Wall Street in a much more constructive direction. I will add to that the networks of social systems scientists - students of Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming, and Russell Ackoff - who are capable of being cultural change agents in the cause of transforming America from a "house divided against itself" to one that is united in its quest for achieving great things only a united nation can achieve.
I renew that call... for you to document this work (partial list below) in such a way - using entertainment elements as only people like you can - that the public will know it does NOT need to elect an unthinking, paranoid, lying president in 2012.
- Steve Brant, member, The Creative Coalition
http://www.unglobalcompact.org
http://www.bsr.org
http://www.rmi.org
http://www.mbdc.com
http://www.wbcsd.org
http://www.unpri.org
http://corpcitizen.economist.com/
http://www.ftconferences.com/csr2010/Agenda/
http://www.leaderssummit2010.org/sitecore/content/be-bruga/leaderssummit2010/programme.aspx
An aside: are you no longer a Huffpost blogger? I seem to recall enjoying some of your work here in the past.
At any rate
All the best
tm
First Year milestones:
411 speeches (52 on HCR)(6 Prime Time)
42 conferences
158 interviews
23 town hall meetings
7 campaign rallies
1 appearance on Teen Choice Awards
1 appearance on Oprah
1 appearance on ESPN
1 appearance on Leno
1 appearance on Letterman
1 promo for George Lopez
5 number of Sunday talks show appeared on in one day
Unprecedented number of magazine covers
21 total number of days out of the public eye
Every date night and trip to the snow cone and ice cream shop chronicled.
Makes you wonder how anything gets done.
Sadly your opinion reflects the mindset of way too many people, that reality stars mean anything at all, let alone to be swooned over and set on a pedestal. As for me, the whole concept makes me ill and gives me great concern over the intellect of my fellow man.
I'm not sure at all they can't be explained. The inexplicable part is why we've allowed it to happen to America's political and cultural preferences.
Name a reality star who isn't famous for being seriously ignorant or cruel or wildly outrageous. American Idol is blood sport...mocking fools and those who apparently know no better. Ignorance and conflict are gold in reality TV.
Shouldn't be be just a tad concerned about our obsession and admiration for this kind of thing? Name a successful reality show (or unsuccessful for that matter) that celebrates a good hearted, clever, intelligent, socially responsible person.
For one, there's obvious voyeurism. We get in trouble for peering in our neighbor's windows, but the omnipresent eye of the camera lets us peek into the melodramatic scandals and "true" confessions of people overplaying their lives. Of course the blood and heartbreak and slightly comedic tragedy are most interesting of all.
Moreover, I think the very fact that we're fed the idea of "reality" TV takes our voyeurism and makes it sort of narcissistic, because suddenly we can imagine our actual lives as being a broadcast spectacle. "Real life normal" people have every move monitored before us, so why couldn't we? Even I'll confess I've imagined me-as-main-character... I think that's part of the addiction.
And how many political scandals have we watched in operatic fashion? I won't even begin to list them. Of course we need to pay attention to the iniquities of those who take responsibility for our country, but it's all drama now...
You boiled it down perfectly: We require nothing of reality stars as long as we connect to them. We demand nothing of them and what they say is unimportant." Perfect. Mencken would agree.
We are shocked by Palin's palm notes. Tea baggers meanwhile say -- hey -- she's just like me! I can vicariously live through her. It's like me and hubbie Bubba can be important too.
That's what the movement is all about.
We got to move these refrigerators.............we got to move these color T.V.s
tm