What’s going on in the minds of some people? I can accept that my dislike of ‘reality’ television programs is not a universal feeling. Obviously it’s quite the minority of thought in the US and the world. I can live with that. But I thought American Idol and Fear factor were about as low as this would go. I was wrong.
There is a saying, ‘Never underestimate the idiocy of people’. I always have believed that. I don’t mean individuals are fools, but often crowds are. The need for the term mob mentality proves that clearly I think. That same mass mentality affects television programming as well. Thus we have had more insipid and low-brow shows year after year. Don’t get me wrong, low-brow can be funny and interesting – in small doses I think.
The reason I have shared these thoughts is because I feel that the bottom of the barrel just got a bit lower. Hard to believe but it has happened. We, as a species, have taken on step down on the collective ladder of life. This happened, in my humble opinion, as soon as someone pitched the idea of a ‘reality’ show where the winner gets an organ donation.
This is reality alright. It’s like the Running Man, or various depictions of the future where contestants that lose are killed. Only we won’t show anyone dying, yet. Best of all, the public gets to watch the equivalent of families begging for their loved ones life. In addition they get to vote for whichever catches their attention, for a small fee for the text message vote. Isn’t that entertaining.
No civilized nation would allow the buying of organs, they all have a lottery system for viable organs. Every year hundreds if not thousands per country in the world die because of lack of organ donations. Yet the thrill, apparently, of watching both a donor and their potential recipients die on television is something someone decided needed to get a greenlight. I’m sure it will be a rating coup. And nothing is more sad.
What is worse, that a life can be bought at a price or that it can be lost because of something as trivial as a text message vote? I have to wonder how wretched a person’s life must be to sit and see a show like this. Yes, it’s not on television now, but the concept is deplorable. It lowers the value of life to nothing.
The ramifications are immense as well. Think about it, children will watch this family programming and learn – as all children do by watching and emulating what they see – that one life is not worth what another is. That condemning someone to death (which may happen to the ‘contestants’ that don’t get the donation) is ok.
If this does gather viewers, and thus both promotes a follow-up program and inspires competitors to create similar television programs [maybe there can be a ‘reality’ competition for euthanasia?], how different is it than the crowds that gathered to watch a hanging or the guillotine from the dark ages. If we can accept winning a part of a person, how long until we accept winning the person? How long until someone gets a media company to back the sale of a person as a prize, bringing back slavery with a ‘fun, family friendly’ prime-time television format?
What corporate executive thought this was a good idea? Are public shareholders, if there are any, that demanding of a profit that this is the only option to improve the bottom line? That would be one hell of a shareholder meeting, or quarterly earnings report to hear. Somehow I don’t see the stock price of this corporation rising. Or at least I would hope not. But I have to remember ‘Never underestimate the idiocy of people’.
This is what I think, what do you think?
Oh, by the way. This program is not on American television, its on in the Netherlands. But if I didn’t mention it, and you didn’t check the link, did you envision a channel it would be on? Were you thinking of watching it?
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