Reality TV is a misnomer; it is often unreal.
Or rather, reality TV’s propensity for foisting the false doctrine of arrogant, self-centered materialism is unbelievable.
Check out The Donald on “The Apprentice,” who looks sublimely ridiculous wearing his grim pout and making an entrance into his infernally dark inner sanctum sanctorum as though conducting the Holy Inquisition. This Grand Inquisitor of the status quo, with his fiercely immobile moue, sits himself down in the midst of a gallery of anxious, grimacing novice-devotees of the religion of materialism. Dump the Trump, or rather the trumpery (tawdry finery or nonsense), I say.
By the way, the word “trump” is defined in the dictionary as “a suit the cards of which are declared as outranking all other cards for the duration of a hand.” There are at least two levels of irony here. One, of course, is that Trump’s neophyte apprentices are playing the “cards” or tempting fate with the ultimate “Trump” card, so to speak. The other irony is that the “Trump” himself is supposed to embody everything that surpasses or outranks everything else.
This Trump card is the cräme de la cräme; you cannot get any better or higher than him. Actually, the only thing great about Trump is his monolithic-proportioned arrogance. But America reveres the greatness that is a faáade for mere arrogance. Trump is not great; he is just a guy with bucks, that is all.
Trump’s “Apprentice,” is an unintentionally funny, darkly surreal comedy throwback to ’80’s “me-ism” and materialism that carries an aura of an ersatz pagan ritual or a transmogrified black mass.
Slightly more toned down is Martha Stewart’s “Apprentice.” However, the slant is the same: capitalistic gain is a sacred, sanctified rite. Martha’s office lair, like Trump’s, is hallowed ground. However, somehow, Martha does not seem quite as preposterous as Trump. But Martha is certainly no less acquisitive, and she certainly takes herself just as seriously as The Donald does.
As a reward to the apprentice who can best curry her favor, the winner receives a resplendent breakfast on Martha’s spacious estate as well as a job.
It is interesting to note that before Martha became a convicted felon, she had only one daytime TV show. Now as a convicted felon who spent time in prison, Martha enjoys the prestige of having not one, but two TV shows that feature her.
A few Americans have casually remarked about how strange that seems, but for the most part, people do not really seem to care.
After all, Martha was incredibly rich before she got into trouble, so consequently Americans are very forgiving of her. That is red-blooded American capitalism for you. Yee-ha!
Imagine where she would be if she were poor. You guessed it! She would still be in prison without one hope of starring in a TV show after her release and certainly not two.
But then I should not come down too hard on Martha, should I? After all, Martha probably typifies the average, run-of-the-mill filthy rich media mogul who owns preferred stock.
Nevertheless, should these shows be considered true Americana? Maybe it is true that capitalistic gain is what America really is all about. After all, scholars have often said that the so-called American Revolution was never about democracy and freedom: it was really only about a bunch of rich guys who just did not want to pay their taxes.
Speaking of ridiculous, the show “Home Makeover” seems to feature a guy frequently seen screaming into a megaphone and usually running around and gesticulating like a psychotic hyperactive child. Nothing’s worse than a grown man behaving this way, but even worse than that, this host seems to exploit a families’ tragedies every week.
One week, Ty, the host, seemed to hit the jackpot. The featured family getting the home makeover included a cancer-stricken child, a severely burned and disfigured child, a wheelchair-bound child and a Down Syndrome child. Each one of these children, all adopted, received specially decorated rooms from Ty and his construction crew.
The adoptive mother also received a specially designed room. Superficially, of course, this show appears to be quite touching; a deprived but deserving family receives needed shelter. But not only that, the family receives customized, state-of-the-art bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and the works.
The producers of “Makeover” are making a lot of dough using families such as the one described. Much like “The Apprentice,” this reality TV show is all about acquisition.
The point of this reality show and the two “Apprentice” shows is that people cannot be happy without gaining lots of expensive things. That was the gist of the sociopathic 1980s, in which gaining material things is the only thing that matters, and certainly gain at any cost is the only way to achieve that goal.