Posted by
Andrews on Friday, January 20, 2012 10:35:29 AM
I don't normally watch American Idol. At one time I would watch it sporadically, mostly for the audition episodes, and then to see how bad the acts could be, but at some point it just got boring, even the auditions,and I lost interest entirely. Which makes it odd that I recently watched two episodes of the most recent auditions. But, there was very little on television, and, though I could just turn the ting off, I was a bit drowsy, and so left it running while doing other things. And thus I ended up watching American idol.
And was a bit surprised to find how low it has fallen.
My mother and I always used to joke that you couldn't get on the show unless you had a sob story, but it seems the show has gone far beyond that. Now it seems not only is it required that you have some hard luck story, but the contest seems to rest more and more often on who has the worst of the hard luck stories. It is kind of a perversion of the Horatio Alger story, one goes from rags to riches, but without the need for all that pesky striving in the middle, you just need to lay out the hardest of hard luck tales, and your history of suffering is enough on its own to bring you success.
I exaggerate, of course, there is still some contest involved, but the emphasis on hardships and stories of suffering really is getting quite absurd. I have yet to see a contestant who does not have some tale of woe, which the program then suggests somehow justifies their success.
Of course, that fits very well with our cultural beliefs. Our emphasis on victimhood, our desire to see ourselves as being the pawns of fate, rather than its master, all the things I find wrong with the modern word*.
Part of the problem is found in that tradition I already mentioned, the Horatio Alger rags to riches story, or perhaps we should call it the Abe Lincoln model, as so many tales arose about his deprived youth. It is a part of our cultural heritage, the stories of those who came from a hard background, who underwent great hardships, and still rose tot he top. However, those stories arose, not to emphasize the hardships, but to teach us about the opportunities all around us, and to tell us we could succeed even if we had great difficulties, if only we tried.
Now, the stories sound the same, but the emphasis has changed. Now it is not the struggle which matters, but the suffering. Instead of rising from our own efforts, we are the playthings of fate, and if we succeed, it is either through dumb luck, or because we were saved from our fates. And that is how the story has changed. We are no longer hearing of suffering in order to emphasize how much we can accomplish, the suffering is used to justify the later success. After all, success alone is a bad thing, a sign the individual was an exploiter, or at least just lucky, and got what they did not deserve. By making them suffer, we make them worthy of success.
If this is confused, I am sorry, but the story itself is a bit confused. Our modern world has not yet reached the point where they can tear down all success and write abominable proletarian literature as some extremists on the left once suggested. We still love our celebrities too much, and, despite our envy, we want to imagine we will be rich one day. So, to allow us those tales, we make the heroes poor, suffering stiffs, so our victim based ethics makes their eventual triumph justified. It is a confused view of the world, but ours is an age in transition, so it is inevitable.
And, unfortunately, American Idol, being on the forefront of pop culture, is a perfect expression of that confused ideology. It is a topic which certainly needs more examination, but for which I lack the time right now. But worry not, I wrote on this before, and shall again, I am sure. So, please hold on for a few more days, as I am certain I will write about this once again soon.
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* There is an
interesting article I stumbled upon which discusses the same change in attitude. I was surprised to find something so sensible in Psychology Today, but, there it is.
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POSTSCRIPT
Some of my writing on our culture can be found in "
Cranky
Old
Man?", "
Faux "Maturity"", "
Catastrophic Thinking, The Political, Economic and Social Impact of Seeing History in the Superlative", "
Pushing the Envelope", "
I
Blame the Romantics", "
The
Adoration
of Youth", "
In
Defense
of
Standards", "
Addenda
to
"In Defense of Standards"", "
Deadly
Cynicism", "
Juvenile
Intellectuals", "
Trophy
Spouses", "
O Tempora! O Mores!, or, The High Cost of Supposed Freedom" and "
Self-Serving
Cynicism
and
Our Cultural Immaturity". There are many more, but these should provide more than enough links to find most of my thoughts on the topic.