Reality show should make us all cringe

A BITTER 'FLAVOR': REALITY SHOW SHOULD MAKE US ALL CRINGE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: DeWayne Wickham]
[Commentary] There's more proof that Neil Postman knew what he was talking about. In his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, the media critic and educator suggested that futurist Aldous Huxley, not George Orwell, had a better vision of where life on this planet is headed. “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books,” Postman wrote in the foreword to his book. “What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. … Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture.” The success of Flavor of Love 2, a VH1 reality show whose second-season premiere last month brought the cable network its highest rating for any opening show, is a crass and tasteless descent into the abyss that Huxley saw the world hurtling toward. And it is proof positive that this nation is at risk of amusing ourselves to death.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060905/opcomtues.art.htm