American Idle (the Reality Television Rant)

The very idea is crazy. The prize is fame --- the winner will be the next great thing, for no other reason than "they say so."

It sounds like a science fiction story about mass manipulation. It sounds like a hoax. It sounds like satire the level of Swift's baby eating scheme. Sadly, it's fact, and it's at the top of the ratings this week.

Can a popular singer be created on the merit of advertising cash alone? The answer is clearly yes. The disillusionment stings, but is not unexpected; the knowledge that money obliterates the correlation between talent and success in art is not surprising after observing that money obliterates the correlation between talent and success in politics. What makes me want to either shun society or sit down and weep is the knowledge that this process of manipulation can be displayed openly and the American public not only falls for it but embraces it.

The viewing audience can be labeled my peers, but I am baffled as to their gullibility. Do we have a generation so lacking critical thinking that it is blind? I have already pondered the need to evaluate media (so as to avoid manipulation and stereotypes). But blindness is not the worst scenario; the scariest possibility is a generation so insecure that it gains its identity from these farces.

And it's probably true.

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