Feeling uncomfortable
I do try to watch, read and research things before I make comment so last night I sat down for half an hour and watched I’m a Celebrity and a bit of X-factor and I began to feel very uncomfortable indeed. For a second I too became a member of the Colosseum watching people being torn apart by the lions (because thats whats really going on here) and then I stopped. Nigel Havers not wanting to wear a black and white striped outfit and sit behind bars because he thought he would be humiliating himself infront of his wife – surely he’s a bad sport – surely he knew what he was letting himself in for everyone cries. And yet… and yet Nigel, yes it is extremely humiliating and I get that at nearly 60 yrs old you shouldnt need to do this. Watching Gillian “fainting” or whatever she was doing on live TV was awful – no matter if it was staged or for real the whole thing is a far cry from the wonderful carol thatcher who powered through the trials a few years ago. Then I watched a little x-factor – again very colosseum like – you now cant hear the judges for the screaming – so they might as well not be there at all. The front of the Observer this weekend has Mr Cowell on the front stroking a white cat. Is anyone sick to death of this “hetrosexual” meglomaniac – I know I am. The article inside is pretty damning about manipulating peoples feeling of needing community and saturday and sunday night we are drawn into a fake community where we think we are a part of something special and big – we are not alone any more – pretty much like facebook – you have a thousand friends so alls ok – when actually you have in reality only a handful of friends that would get up in the night and take you to the hospital if you were ill.
It was with a real sense of unease that I watched these programmes and wondered how many people were watching Channel 4’s brilliant Any Human Heart. Oh dear….
