The endless parade of today's reality programming speaks directly to where the minds and interests of most Americans are in my opinion. Just as long as you leave most Americans alone, untouched and unaffected by the day to day affairs and effects of life and living, they could literally care less what happens to everything and everyone else in the world. Americans have become content to sit back and laugh at the fools of the world, resting on our laurels and high fiving ourselves into an oblivious state of self appraisal and self approval. Or at least it seems so at first glance to those who are actually paying attention. But what exactly are these average Americans really so content with?
The more and more I observe the goings on in America today, the more and more I have come to realize that most Americans are truly like the story of the boiled frog. Everyone knows that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water? He will immediately leap out. Recognizing the danger and the immediate threat to life, the frog will not remain there to be boiled alive. But what if the demise is gradual?
Well.....it seems that in the late 19th century "scientists" did just that. They conducted experiments to see what would happened if you slowly cooked a frog and what they discovered was amazing to say the least. They found through experimentation, that the truth of the matter is, if you heat the water slowly enough? That frogs will sit there until it is too late. The frogs will stay put and ultimately be boiled alive, just as long as they don't realize what is happening to them, until it is too late.
Watching the reactions of people in America to the news and the reports of daily events around the world, points me directly to the proven experiments of the boiled frog, with one glaring difference. The key difference to getting Americas to sit still while the water is prepared for their boiling involves entertainment. Give them something to do. Give them something to watch. Allow them the ability to sit and watch other frogs being boiled and they will obediently and contently sit still while you prepare their own heated bath.
As long as it is happening to someone else? It is not only of little concern to the average American, but if anything, it is actually quite entertaining to watch. How else can we explain the fascination with mindless television programming that focuses on the misery, idiocy and lunacy of others. Who would have ever thought that America's number one rated programs would revolve around novice dancers or duck hunters or bounty hunters and repossession specialists or an obese family of five, living in a two bedroom house with one bathroom and a fascination with farting. Gilligan's Island, The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith show must look like advanced theories of life, compared to what is considered humorous and entertaining in today's world.
I sit and shake my head in wonder. We begin our days with "Good Morning America." A program more focused on the mundane and simple minded reporting of a Utopian America, than it is about things that really matter in our world. In late afternoon after the work day comes the beginning of the mind numbing programs. Entertainment Tonight! What a wonderful example of the mechanism and focus of the modern day contemporary American mind. Entertainment Tonight! The one stop satisfaction that will tell you everything you need to know about Justin Beiber, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga. the Kardasians and Beyonce. Entertainment Tonight! A one stop, one shot power up fix of rapid fire sound bits and glitzy videos about the who's who and minute by minute reality of gossip and mindless drama of down the rabbit hole world of our existence. But its no longer Alice in Wonderland, it's America in Wonderland and Americans cannot get enough of their power shots of Red Bull and Real Bull reality.
Then its time for dancing or singing, or being cast away on an island with others who will each expose their inner most revelations about their relationships and trials of life, all the while surviving little by little from being voted off the island. Gilligan and Skipper obviously had it all wrong.
Really? Yes.....really. That is precisely the world that the majority of Americans apparently exist in today, at least it is if we are to observe and believe the results of our daily lives as seen on television and on the internet. And I haven't even covered the jack assed movies that are now produced with regularity, including believe it or not, an actual series of films proudly marketed and titled "Jackass!" Or should it be called? The adventures of stupid people, doing stupid things, while stupid people watch them and are entertained?
So.....there is no need for me to list or enumerate the present crisis' facing Americans either here or in the rest of the world, because Americans simply don't care anyway. I will do better to just join in with the sharing of the daily dose of mindless interests that everyone else enjoys both here and elsewhere. So I guess I will pass along the things that are considered entertainment like the rest.
Here in the facebook world is the place where we the little people can enjoy the fun that obviously propels our world. Sharing the simple and the amusing and the little things that keep us from paying attention to the temperature of the bath water.
I enjoy this little entertaining world we all share here in facebook land, except I am getting a little wrinkly, so I think I am about done with the bath. So do excuse me if I appear to be sitting on the sidelines sometimes and not enjoying everything as much as everyone else, but I do have my tolerances when it comes to being slowly cooked alive. ;-)
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