Americans Suck

It's a shame that reality television in the US is so shallow and at best socially neutral. India usually has the same issue with stupid reality television that's degrading for both the participants and viewers, but they did recently have one that's a scholarship competition testing the quality of the potential scholars and sending the winner to an all-expenses-paid education at a top British university. But,unfortunately, I don't think such a television show would fly here. Television, music, cinema, and art are a reflection of the society in which they were created. Popular entertainment hasn't made us dumber. We've simply demanded that entertainment become dumber. Even looking at a do-gooder show like Extreme Makeover Home Edition you see that what attracts the crowds isn't as much the charitable work done on the show, but the extreme, expensive-looking homes they build for the deserving families. Instead of encouraging viewers to take up community service with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, they dazzle us with a display of wealth and feed into our tendencies for materialism and attitudes of bigger is better. Publicizing a scholarship competition and sending the winner to a prestigious university just can't compare. Education isn't valued here. Only wealth and its appearance are.