Not literally, but I don't have cable television and that defines a cave to some folks. However, I do read and surf the internet so I am aware of the vast wasteland of crap piped into the homes here in the U.S. of A.
Mr. DeWayne Wickham, of USA Today, is aware of this as well and uses Neil Postman's book, 'Amusing ourselves to death', to illustrate the seemingly agreed uponmodern social agenda to find the lowest common human denominator via triviality and irrelevance.
A bitter 'Flavor': Reality show should make us all cringe.
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books," Postman wrote in the foreword to his book. "What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. ... Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture."
The success of Flavor of Love 2, a VH1 reality show whose second-season premiere last month brought the cable network its highest rating for any opening show, is a crass and tasteless descent into the abyss that Huxley saw the world hurtling toward. And it is proof positive that this nation is at risk of amusing ourselves to death.
If you think Flavor of Love 2 is innocent television fare, you're wrong.
"We do not see nature or intelligence or human motivation or ideology as 'it' is but only as our languages are," Postman wrote. "And our languages are our media. Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture."
And shows such as Flavor of Love 2 dumb us down and define us to others in ways that ought to cause an awful churning in our national gut.
DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.
All I know is, if I was a black man, I would be outraged at the baffoon-pimp-cartoon 'step-n-fetchit' imagery that is being portrayed on this show.
And where the heck are the feminists to give these producers and actresses a good monkey stomp for this butt-ugly, pathetic portrayal of the female gender??
Amusement has descended into a horrid national embarrassment.
