(no subject)
One thing people need to become more comfortable with is not being certain. It's taken me twenty-four years to come to this point. When I was seventeen, I felt that I needed to come down on a particular side of any debate immediately. This is a visceral reaction; it's not rooted in the rational, but instead in the emotional part of the mind. When I ask you, is abortion wrong? you are allowed to say "I'm not sure," or "I have no idea," or even "I have no opinion."
This brings me to reality television. Reality TV is also visceral. Extreme personalities prosper on reality shows because A) they are easy to understand and B) they elicit emotional responses within us. In the past ten years, reality shows as a concept have become thoroughly ingrained in our cultural consciousness. In the nineties, however, reality television was in its infancy with such shows as Real World, Road Rules and Cops. Originally, the outlandishly crazy people were the minority. Most people on the Real World were average and by extension, boring. Now that we understand reality television better, obnoxious personalities are not only the majority - they are everything. This has been illustrated perfectly by shows like Jersey Shore.
Whether you watch the show or not, you probably have an opinion about the cast of the Jersey Shore. The two opinions available seem to be that they are over exposed morons underserving of attention or legitimately entertaining people, albeit something of a guilty pleasure. In America, there seems to be a fervor for coming down one either side of two warring camps. People seem to ignore the fact that there are two other options available (I don't care and, most importantly, both are true).
In the current political climate, if you are in favor of the current administration you are depicted as a pompous ultra liberal elitist and if you are against the administration you are depicted as a rage filled, anti-intellectual, bible-thumping hick. (The Tea Party was originally a subversion of this, appealing to moderates who felt they weren't represented by either of the major parties. However, the Republicans, anxious to shake off their image as out of touch war mongering old white guys, co-opted the movement instead targeting it toward those with, arguably, latent racist objections to Obama. But I don't really want to get into politics too much right now.)
The media (ominous echo) is implicit in this over simplification of views. When 24 hour news channels arose, people imagined that more and better access to news would be the outcome. However, the opposite has come true. In an effort to consistently fill time, news organizations began covering things that would have been either ignored or given only passing mention previously. This Non-News eventually made people develop a taste for it, to the point where real news became boring. The result is a typical scenario such as this:
Crazy politician said this today. (11 AM)
People react to what crazy politicians said. (12 PM)
Crazy politician apologizes. (2 PM)
Pundits weigh in on crazy politician (4 - 6 PM)
Meanwhile, real things are happening such as bills being passed, developments in oversea conflicts, etc. But the news castors are wasting time on non-issues and non-events and reactions to these examples of non-news.
Similar to reality television, in this system of non-news, bombastic individuals thrive (Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck) while more rational people (Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, CNN in general) are ignored. (Fox News consistently beats CNN in the ratings.)
Pop culture shares a symbiotic relationship with reality. It both comments on reality and creates reality. When people see things on television, they imagine that this is how people in the world are. As a result, they begin imitating the things they've seen; people begin imitating them and so on. So, people watching loud pundits, reporting non-news about non-issues changes the population. The Situation has no doubt inspired people to begin 'GTL Sessions' (Gym-Tan-Laundry) thus perpetuating and sustaining the idea that this is how people act, just like watching Tea Partiers say that Obama is responsible for the bailouts, Obamacare is evil, or the stimulus didn't work perpetuates these ideas while also sustaining them.
The Tea Party candidates that have exploded on the scene this year are nothing more than the Snookis of politics. They offer visceral, relatable personalities that appeal to people who don't want to think. People eat this shit up because they feel the need to come down on a side: for or against Obama. However, they miss the other options (again, I don't care and I agree with him on some things and disagree with others.)
It is perfectly reasonable to not have a strong position on an issue. Most of the time we don't have all of the information needed to make an informed decision - either because we don't give a shit enough to look for it or we don't have time to keep up with it. That is understandable. Wading through the bullshit is hard and after a long day of work, I don't want to dig through figures to see who is actually right about the bailout. But, I also don't paint signs and shout at rallies because I heard a couple of loud people say things that appealed to my anger. We must resist the urge let people elicit a knee-jerk reaction from us. If you don't know everything about a particular issue it's okay; you don't work in the government. Don't take to the streets based on something you heard someone say. If you inform yourself and THEN feel "mad as hell" by all means, go forth. Otherwise, sit down and get ready for t-shirt time.
This brings me to reality television. Reality TV is also visceral. Extreme personalities prosper on reality shows because A) they are easy to understand and B) they elicit emotional responses within us. In the past ten years, reality shows as a concept have become thoroughly ingrained in our cultural consciousness. In the nineties, however, reality television was in its infancy with such shows as Real World, Road Rules and Cops. Originally, the outlandishly crazy people were the minority. Most people on the Real World were average and by extension, boring. Now that we understand reality television better, obnoxious personalities are not only the majority - they are everything. This has been illustrated perfectly by shows like Jersey Shore.
Whether you watch the show or not, you probably have an opinion about the cast of the Jersey Shore. The two opinions available seem to be that they are over exposed morons underserving of attention or legitimately entertaining people, albeit something of a guilty pleasure. In America, there seems to be a fervor for coming down one either side of two warring camps. People seem to ignore the fact that there are two other options available (I don't care and, most importantly, both are true).
In the current political climate, if you are in favor of the current administration you are depicted as a pompous ultra liberal elitist and if you are against the administration you are depicted as a rage filled, anti-intellectual, bible-thumping hick. (The Tea Party was originally a subversion of this, appealing to moderates who felt they weren't represented by either of the major parties. However, the Republicans, anxious to shake off their image as out of touch war mongering old white guys, co-opted the movement instead targeting it toward those with, arguably, latent racist objections to Obama. But I don't really want to get into politics too much right now.)
The media (ominous echo) is implicit in this over simplification of views. When 24 hour news channels arose, people imagined that more and better access to news would be the outcome. However, the opposite has come true. In an effort to consistently fill time, news organizations began covering things that would have been either ignored or given only passing mention previously. This Non-News eventually made people develop a taste for it, to the point where real news became boring. The result is a typical scenario such as this:
Crazy politician said this today. (11 AM)
People react to what crazy politicians said. (12 PM)
Crazy politician apologizes. (2 PM)
Pundits weigh in on crazy politician (4 - 6 PM)
Meanwhile, real things are happening such as bills being passed, developments in oversea conflicts, etc. But the news castors are wasting time on non-issues and non-events and reactions to these examples of non-news.
Similar to reality television, in this system of non-news, bombastic individuals thrive (Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck) while more rational people (Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, CNN in general) are ignored. (Fox News consistently beats CNN in the ratings.)
Pop culture shares a symbiotic relationship with reality. It both comments on reality and creates reality. When people see things on television, they imagine that this is how people in the world are. As a result, they begin imitating the things they've seen; people begin imitating them and so on. So, people watching loud pundits, reporting non-news about non-issues changes the population. The Situation has no doubt inspired people to begin 'GTL Sessions' (Gym-Tan-Laundry) thus perpetuating and sustaining the idea that this is how people act, just like watching Tea Partiers say that Obama is responsible for the bailouts, Obamacare is evil, or the stimulus didn't work perpetuates these ideas while also sustaining them.
The Tea Party candidates that have exploded on the scene this year are nothing more than the Snookis of politics. They offer visceral, relatable personalities that appeal to people who don't want to think. People eat this shit up because they feel the need to come down on a side: for or against Obama. However, they miss the other options (again, I don't care and I agree with him on some things and disagree with others.)
It is perfectly reasonable to not have a strong position on an issue. Most of the time we don't have all of the information needed to make an informed decision - either because we don't give a shit enough to look for it or we don't have time to keep up with it. That is understandable. Wading through the bullshit is hard and after a long day of work, I don't want to dig through figures to see who is actually right about the bailout. But, I also don't paint signs and shout at rallies because I heard a couple of loud people say things that appealed to my anger. We must resist the urge let people elicit a knee-jerk reaction from us. If you don't know everything about a particular issue it's okay; you don't work in the government. Don't take to the streets based on something you heard someone say. If you inform yourself and THEN feel "mad as hell" by all means, go forth. Otherwise, sit down and get ready for t-shirt time.