by Charley James

Created on: March 17, 2008   Last Updated: March 21, 2011

I loathe reality TV. The shows have as much connection with reality as issues have with most political campaigns.

These degrading spectacles are as scripted a daytime soap opera with, possibly, a bit of improv thrown in by accident, but I doubt that happens very often.

They are what ancient Romans called "panem et circenses," and are the bread and circuses of our time, created to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Have you noticed that they all revolve around bullying, not unlike the Roman circus where slaves were bullied by lions? From "The Apprentice" (and its bastard child "Celebrity Apprentice") to "American Idol" and "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (Answer: No), someone gets bullied in every episode.

The formats of the various shows are nearly identical. They all revolve around disemboweling the other guy the fattest, least talented, weakest, dumbest, most pathetic, slowest or ugliest and yet we laugh or argue over why he shouldn't have been voted off the island or she should have chosen him. Reality TV appeals to our very worst instincts and, given that television always reflects society, is a sadly typical sign of our time. Like anonymous blogs, they are simply vicious and evil. What does that say about us?

Perhaps the most offensive are the "reality dating shows" because they prey on people in their late teens and early 20s, a time of life when people are the most emotionally vulnerable and most desperate to fit in. MTV's "Next" is a prime example. It gives one person chance to meet five competing members of the opposite sex and offer one of them a second date. The "dater" may "next" a contestant at any time for any reason, sending them into socially humiliating obscurity before moving on to another contestant. The elimination often occurs on first sight and is usually accompanied by an insultingly cutting comment such as, "She's way too fat" or "This girl needs h-o-t hot and he's u-g-l-e-e ugly."

When a civilization finds entertainment in mockery, humiliation, cruelty and pain at the expense of somebody else, it is simply mocking, humiliating, and hurting itself.

A Dutch company, Endemol, created the genre, at least in its current form. When I walked past one of its branch offices in Barcelona last summer, I thought to myself, "You guys have a lot to answer for."

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