Rocking the Vote!
So last Friday as I go tear-assing out of my apartment in an attempt to get two-hundred and ten miles down the road before all the Texas steakhouses are closed down for the night, I find that lo-and-behold, my inbox is filled with a series of messages, subject line - Re: The Best Day Ever. The original of these emails is from a dear friend, Devo, who was simply penning away at work in Chicago about how great it was that Tyler Hayes won American Idol and that Lay and Skilling were both sentenced to Forever-Without-Parole behind bars. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, we are entitled to what is our greatest day, whether it is spoken in irony or not. However, what I was not so keen on was the flood of other emails, most of which discussed the turn out of American Idol (which was charmingly referred to as “AI” by the obviously savvy). To be fair, some did mention the state of affairs with the Enron Executives, but by and large was the state of that grey-haired, so-called Soul Man, who looks more like a Jay Leno look-alike to me than anything else. I was perhaps a bit touchy and in a hurry and sent this as a reply:
I have never watched American Idol nor will I. I think that it is one of the saddest displays of Americans showing where their true patriotism lies: to the American Dollar and the idea that you can get somp’in’ fum nuttin’. The American Dream is to work for good life - not get it handed to you for singing in the shower. The undisciplined acquisition of fame and fortune leads us to the likes of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie; they have no respect or understanding; souls without country or fraternity. Personally, I believe this type of mindset bore Scientology into this world, but I digress.
However, the fact is we blame everyone and everything but ourselves. You talk shit about AI and all the people who are caught up in it. The truth is that you are just as negatively affected by each other’s participation in this circus as you are for participating in the three rings themselves. In the end, when it comes to this crap, you’re all just a bunch of non-thinking MTV-brain washed Xers glued to their TIVO like monkeys waiting for a banana, who are willing to fill my inbox with countless emails about a show that you claim to loath, yet can’t stop talking about. It makes me sad for all of us.
Please remove me from The Best Day Ever list.
Fair assessment: I was a bit insulting. I understand that the email was probably intended to start needless babble, office humor, and to lighten everyone’s cyber / emailing day to, say, the point of it being the best day ever. To continue my story, I returned home from my long weekend to find about ten personal responses to the email that you see above. My personal favorite was “…who let Bill O’Reilly on the list?…” For the record, I think Bill O’Reilly is just good wholesome family humor / entertainment - like The Smurfs or Emirel.
Anyway, the point is that I was unaware that I had put something out there that was really insulting that many people? I mean, as a group, let me ask this: Do you think that at least twice as many people voting for American Idol than voted for the Presidency is sad? Do you think that Tyler Hayes is really the best new talent in America or even worth a million dollars? Lastly, do you think that society’s proportionate attention in such respective quantity is deserving to Tyler Hayes over, say, an elected official, civil servant, or even an honest-to-God artist or poet? I’m sorry, but I do not find my answers to these questions worthy of humor in any form. Observation and noteworthy, perhaps; but not funny in the least. As my mother has said, if you find yourself offended by observation, it is often a particular indicator of guilt. Moms are smart, huh?
Okay, let me address a few of the critics, some of whom I have already addressed privately. On The American Dream: yes, I agree that the American Dream is about opportunity, and I would also agree that this show is such an opportunity. However, the American Dream is not simply thus. It is about earning the opportunity to work hard and feel the accomplishment of achieving money, power, and fame. Even that does not do The American Dream justice, not in all its shades of failure, strife, fruitless toil, and the discovery of Self that occurs regardless of success or failure along the way. By and large, we, as Gen Xers, do not understand this at all. We think we do, but we do not. Realize that we do not know love unless we have been in love, we do not understand pain until we are cut, and we do not really feel Punk Rock until, well… okay, I’m lost on this one, but you get me. So when I say that this this show is just a parody of such, then I think I am just in saying so. Also, I would like to add that this goes for nearly all reality TV shows with large cash prizes that are doled out to individuals who exude shallow, no integrity, immoral qualities. American Idol is simply the flag ship, and the one that exploits audience participation the worst.
I do not believe that I am comparing apples and oranges when I am talking about Americas interest in this reality show verse our state as a Union. People at home had to exert at least a menial amount of effort to vote for Tyler Hayes, yet these same people could not exert the same amount of energy to vote for an elected official or civil servant. I voted in the 2004 election while deployed to Camp Combat Outpost, Iraq. This article was written a year after I left, and from the sounds of things, quality of life has improved. I’m not saying anything about anything with this… just if I can vote here, what was your excuse?
Look, it’s fine if you like the show, I’m cool with that. As far as entertainment goes, I’m sure it’s a hoot. However, as far as a cultural indicator of our current mindset as Americans - well, that’s something else. When I say “you” in my email, I mean that because I don’t mean ”me”. But that’s simply as the chips fall on this frame of reference. “You” are not bad people whom I condemn like some sort of Uber-Christian (which judging by some of the names on that email list, I know some of “you” are), and I do not claim to be anyone other than me. We are all Americans here, and as such me should be aware of the light in which we are cast. And that was the intended point of the email; sorry if it ruffled some feathers.
