Yes, I am a true history nerd. Never was there more proof than my serious addiction to shows on PBS like the current Texas Ranch House. On one hand, I adore them, because it’s such an interesting look at how people lived back then. On the other hand, it drives me insane to see the interactions between the people. Have I mentioned that I despise reality shows?
It’s so interesting to me to see how people default to the negative. I get frustrated, because you see the very worst in human nature. After a while, I just get sick of watching people be mean to each other. So the historical value of it all ends up going by the wayside and I move on to better things. Like historical romance. J I may be a nerd, but I’m a romantic nerd.
Which brings me to the question of humanity-as much as I claim to mistrust others and the world, there’s still this part of me that wants to believe the best. I listened to a really interesting lecture a couple weeks ago about how we, as humans, are violent at our very core. He traced it back to Biblical roots, and it was pretty scary. How ages ago, one man had murderous intent towards his brother, and we’ve been violent since.
So is that why grown men and women can act like children on TV? Is that why, despite all of our advances and supposed enlightenment, we are still no better than cavemen? A good friend of mine likes to joke about evolution-He’s always telling me that certain people need to evolve. But we haven’t really, have we? We’re still out there, finding all sorts of ways to be vicious and to hurt each other. And to what end?
In three months, the people on the show (and yes, I know it’s already over for them) will go back to the lives they left. Sure they will have a greater appreciation for history, and they’ll definitely enjoy the benefits of technology, but where will they be as people? Has anyone come off of any of these so-called reality shows a better human being? Are we, for watching these shows, any better ourselves?
I know, it’s great entertainment. While I’ve yet to watch an entire episode of Survivor or the Apprentice (sorry, there’s only so much backbiting this girl can take), I do get sucked in to these history things, even to the point of telling DH that I would love to do that. But you know-maybe I wouldn’t. If our default is to regress into these selfish idiotic jerks, I’m not so sure I want to go there. I like being in a place where I can examine who I am and become better-at least I hope that’s what I’m doing.
Yeah, long, introspective bunny trail. Really, this post was supposed to be about how I sat at the TV for two hours tonight, calling people I don’t even know bad names (guess my nature isn’t so evolved either). The worst part that gets me, though, is that I bet there were some really positive moments on the shows where you could have seen the goodness in humanity, but the producers decided it would be more interesting for us to watch a fistfight than to watch a bunch of people sitting around a campfire singing Kumbayah all day. That’s probably another sad commentary on how we’ve supposedly evolved.
Ah well, I suppose I’ve probably ranted on long enough-time to see if the baby’s fever has broken and if I have another pool of vomit to clean up. I think my previous vomit post was slightly prophetic. May you all have a joyous and vomit free day tomorrow.
2 comments:
Since my "area" in my history degree is American Indian studies, I have a love of things western, but I haven't watched this show.
I don't know if you would regress. I think some people were brought up in certain ways, learning how to control urges and others weren't. It would make a great sociological study though.
Hope the little one is feeling better.
It would be a great sociological study.
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