Goodbye/Hello 15 "Is Reality Becoming Too Relative?"

With all the hubbub going around about Michaele and Tareq Salahi the aspiring reality-TV stars that crashed the Obama's State Dinner. I decided to go to my trusted dictionary to look up "reality" since some in our country seem to be losing all sense of "reality" in accelerating amounts.

Reality: 1. The state or quality of being real 2. Resemblance to what is real The second definition made me queasy for this is where we seem to be losing our grip. Were the Salahis waving to the cameras at the State Dinner and posing next to President Obama and other key cabinet figures acting as a resemblance of what is real? What is the definition of real? And what is the difference between real and reality?
Real: 1 True; not merely obstensible 2. Existing or occurring as fact; actual rather than imaginary 3.Being actually such; not merely so called

Reality is relative. You can resemble what is real without being real. You can be imaginary, a faker, a poser, a wannabe, a status junkie, an A-list groupie, or a reality-TV star which is about as far from real as you can get. What is going on here? Why is our society producing people such as the balloon boy's family the Heines, looking to make themselves into reality TV stars using their son Falcon in the hoax? And what's up with the Salahis thinking that they are so important that they delude themselves into believing that their presence is worth breaching White House security. I don't by the way consider Jon and Kate Gosselin in this camp for they were young parents trying to figure a way to provide for a family of 10 and put money aside for college. It is daunting enough to put one child through college these days let alone 10. Unfortunately the reality that they eventually created became very sad for the whole family. You can't be part of something as unreal as "reality TV" without it causing some very "real" problems.

Real is fact. Real is a jobless rate of 10.2% and 431,900 million jobs lost since President Obama took office. Real is one in eight Americans including one in four children totaling more than 36 million people on food stamps. Real is 1 in 136 households receiving a foreclosure filing up 23% from 3rd Quarter of 2008. Real is 4,370 Americans killed in Iraq, 930 killed in Afghanistan and 31,572 troops wounded in action. Real is President Obama saluting flap draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base. Real is soldiers serving multiple tours back to back in Iraq and now headed for Afghanistan. Real is a jump of nearly 50% in 2007 of post traumatic stress disorder from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Real is the burden of this on military families. Real is what most Americans are living in this country and that is far, far away from what media calls "reality TV".

Who needs to see more The Real Housewives, Biggest Loser, Bridezillas, Wife Swop, Intervention, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Survivor, Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants, Bad Girls, and Cops. Really we are better than this.

Goodbye to unreal world of reality TV shows
Hello to showing what is real to ourselves and our families

Goodbye to wannabes, posers, fabricators, gate-crashers
Hello to genuine, authentic, natural, real, gate-respecters

Goodbye to realities based on fantasy
Hello to realities based on truth

 

Comments

[Sean Ross]

01:54 PM on 12/04/2009

I enjoy your site. I am a first time commenter. A coworker of mine forwarded this blog to me. I do not believe DOG should have been included. This show is real and does take real criminals off the street. DOG and crew are not actors.

Recently with the two officers being shot by the hoodlum allowed back on the street, I support the profession of bounty hunting even more. DOG captures criminals that others bail out, and will not bail out just anyone. This is a service to our community and the public at no cost to us. It is interestin­g and real.

A good piece, but some errors.

Thanks

Sean Ross

[DavidWebster]

01:44 PM on 12/04/2009

Regarding DOG The Bounty Hunter; I am from Colorado and have witnessed one of their arrests. This arrest was not staged and was as real as could be. The police officer who came to the scene told me they had been looking for this thug for months. In fact, the officer told me that he and his co-workers were appreciati­ve of DOG taking criminals off the street at NO cost to the taxpayers of Colorado and or Hawaii where they reside. I do not believe that DOG should have been mentioned in this article. There is nothing unreal about the people they arrest. DOG is unique, but that has no bearing on the reality of the show, which is very real.

Taking another felon off the street in these times, is something I will always support. With the Police being underfunde­d and overwhelme­d, this is a help to society. I have children and many of the people that DOG and crew have arrested needed to be locked up. The Police then more resources elsewhere

DOG should not have been in this article. The facts are not there to support this writer's claim. Also, the writer mentions Desperate Housewives­. This is a show with hired actors and scripts, and has never claimed to be close to a reality show, in fact, far from it. It is no more real than LOST or Law and Order.

Neither DOG nor DH fit this article profile

Thanks

[PattCott]

03:08 PM on 12/04/2009

Please see revisions in post