Reality TV sets new behavior standards
Set aside any ideas you have about providing closure for the victims’ families. Set aside the idea of the death penalty being some kind of punishment – I mean is it really a punishment if you’re too dead to understand the punshment – and set aside the incorrect idea that it’s cheaper than incarcerating someone. The truest and most original purpose of Capital Punishment is to make a very public and unmistakable statement that certain behavior simply won’t be tolerated by society.
With that in mind, doesn’t reality TV sort of do the opposite? (I hear those crazy Jersey Shore kids are doing quite well.) I worry that reality TV is creating a new standard of what’s acceptable behavior. We went from killing people in order to say that certain behavior isn’t tolerated to taking people who behave like moronic scoundrels, putting them on TV and making them rich.
I know people have always behaved like that, but they’ve mostly been out of public view. And when they were in view, they were ridiculed. Or arrested. With so much of it on TV these days, aren’t we running on ridicule overload? At some point, doesn’t it create the perception that a lot of people behave that way – and by extension, that it must be somewhat socially acceptable?
It’s all by design….. aaaaall by design…
(You don’t mind me sitting here on this rocking horse, smoking this pipe do you…?)
The world is a funny place, where inappropriate behavior is awarded by wealth and fame on major television networks and those doing good are afterthoughts on local news programs.
I’m always amazed at the number of magazine covers the kids from 16 and Pregnant manage to grace. We are rewarding teenage pregnancy, making these children (because that’s what they are) celebrities, when in fact we should be teaching proper birth control and reminding teenagers of the difficulties in raising children at their age.
Funny you mention that. You should check out my other post from today on teen pregnancy!