elledark: The Reality Behind ‘Reality TV’...

29th February 2012

Photo reblogged from Elle Dark with 27 notes

elledark:

The Reality Behind ‘Reality TV’Seasons change. The solemn promises made by politicians change. The one thing that doesn’t change, though, is human nature. Technology has made us almost god-like these days. We can cure disease and hurl nuclear death across whole continents, but inside our heads we’re still the same unevolved apes who hit each other with clubs and if you want proof of that you need look no further than ‘Reality TV’, a gleeful celebration of all that’s worst and most tawdry about humanity.Sometimes it’s in the format of a game-show, or a chat-show, or a ‘competition’, but it’s always cheap and nasty. ‘Reality’ TV, of course, is anything but reality. It takes gullible, often dim or damaged, ‘ordinary’ people desperate for their 15 minutes of fame and puts them into highly unreal situations where they can be broken down, humiliated, and made to behave badly for the voyeuristic pleasure of the viewing audience. Any notion of ‘reality’ is made even more laughable as events are manipulated through editing to make it all as shocking as possible. Do people want to see happy, intelligent, well-adjusted people getting along ? Are you kidding ? They want to see tears, heartbreak, anger, tension, bloody-minded bigotry. They want to be shocked. They want bullying. They want to watch the fly having its wings pulled off. They want to feel superior. That is the reality about the unchanging nature of humanity that TV producers grasp perfectly.Around 2000 years ago the Roman emperors came up with a way of keeping the masses in line. They built the Colosseum, a huge amphitheater where they staged bloody gladiatorial contests and other ‘entertainments’ that pitted men against wild animals. Throwing Christians to the lions went down quite well, apparently. For the Roman rulers, these regular gore-fests were a winning idea. Give the masses some cheap, nasty entertainment and they’d be so titillated they’d forget their grievances and ignore the shortcomings of the political system. What the Romans did, knowingly or otherwise, was to tap into our age-old desire to see our fellow man suffer as nastily as possible. The same basic human instinct that later had people in medieval times watching their fellows being burnt as witches in Spain, or which drew crowds of family picknickers to see the public hangings at Tyburn or Newgate in England, or which had old ladies knitting cosily in the front row as the guillotine did its bloody work in revolutionary France, or which still sees crowds attending public stonings in some countries. Human nature does *not* change. Today we may pretend to be civilized but that nasty streak inside us remains so we feed it by watching ritual humiliations on ‘reality’ tv .Which you could, of course, argue is a good thing. Willing ‘victims’ may be harmed mentally for the entertainment of others, but at least they don’t get disemboweled. That’s progress, right ? But what happens when boredom sets in, as it inevitably will ? What happens when ratings start to slip ? The profit motive has no conscience. So will we start to see the TV companies getting ever harder and more extreme as they strive to shock and titillate ? Will we see the electric chair dragged out again and dusted off for public pay-per-view TV executions ? Do you really think there *wouldn’t* be a huge audience if they did that ? Or should we maybe have poor people whose kids need operations but who aren’t covered by medical insurance having to make their pitch on TV so the viewers can text or call-in votes ? There’d be some tears and heart-warming moments there, wouldn’t there ? And how long after that, I wonder, before some bright TV exec comes up with the idea of throwing members of a minority group to the lions on TV ? Well it worked before, didn’t it ??

The Reality Behind ‘Reality TV’

Seasons change. The solemn promises made by politicians change. The one thing that doesn’t change, though, is human nature. Technology has made us almost god-like these days. We can cure disease and hurl nuclear death across whole continents, but inside our heads we’re still the same unevolved apes who hit each other with clubs and if you want proof of that you need look no further than ‘Reality TV’, a gleeful celebration of all that’s worst and most tawdry about humanity.

Sometimes it’s in the format of a game-show, or a chat-show, or a ‘competition’, but it’s always cheap and nasty. ‘Reality’ TV, of course, is anything but reality. It takes gullible, often dim or damaged, ‘ordinary’ people desperate for their 15 minutes of fame and puts them into highly unreal situations where they can be broken down, humiliated, and made to behave badly for the voyeuristic pleasure of the viewing audience. Any notion of ‘reality’ is made even more laughable as events are manipulated through editing to make it all as shocking as possible.

Do people want to see happy, intelligent, well-adjusted people getting along ? Are you kidding ? They want to see tears, heartbreak, anger, tension, bloody-minded bigotry. They want to be shocked. They want bullying. They want to watch the fly having its wings pulled off. They want to feel superior. That is the reality about the unchanging nature of humanity that TV producers grasp perfectly.

Around 2000 years ago the Roman emperors came up with a way of keeping the masses in line. They built the Colosseum, a huge amphitheater where they staged bloody gladiatorial contests and other ‘entertainments’ that pitted men against wild animals. Throwing Christians to the lions went down quite well, apparently. For the Roman rulers, these regular gore-fests were a winning idea. Give the masses some cheap, nasty entertainment and they’d be so titillated they’d forget their grievances and ignore the shortcomings of the political system.

What the Romans did, knowingly or otherwise, was to tap into our age-old desire to see our fellow man suffer as nastily as possible. The same basic human instinct that later had people in medieval times watching their fellows being burnt as witches in Spain, or which drew crowds of family picknickers to see the public hangings at Tyburn or Newgate in England, or which had old ladies knitting cosily in the front row as the guillotine did its bloody work in revolutionary France, or which still sees crowds attending public stonings in some countries. Human nature does *not* change. Today we may pretend to be civilized but that nasty streak inside us remains so we feed it by watching ritual humiliations on ‘reality’ tv .

Which you could, of course, argue is a good thing. Willing ‘victims’ may be harmed mentally for the entertainment of others, but at least they don’t get disemboweled. That’s progress, right ? But what happens when boredom sets in, as it inevitably will ? What happens when ratings start to slip ? The profit motive has no conscience. So will we start to see the TV companies getting ever harder and more extreme as they strive to shock and titillate ? Will we see the electric chair dragged out again and dusted off for public pay-per-view TV executions ?

Do you really think there *wouldn’t* be a huge audience if they did that ? Or should we maybe have poor people whose kids need operations but who aren’t covered by medical insurance having to make their pitch on TV so the viewers can text or call-in votes ? There’d be some tears and heart-warming moments there, wouldn’t there ? And how long after that, I wonder, before some bright TV exec comes up with the idea of throwing members of a minority group to the lions on TV ?

Well it worked before, didn’t it ??

Source: elledark

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