Reality TV Gets More and More Like the News - It's All About Suffering.

Life seems so complicated some times, especially when I really pay attention to what’s going on around me. Being virtually bed-bound still I can’t see much of what’s in the world except what’s reflected on TV. I can hardly bear to watch the news much, it’s just all war and fighting and killing and murder and mayhem. And it’s all so normal now.

I don’t mind watching that if it’s fiction, so long as life is portrayed as being essentially good, with most people having the integrity to at least wrestle with fairness and justice. And I always want to see the good guys win. And when it comes to reality on TV, I long to see more of that, too.

I watched CNN’s coverage of William and Kate in Canada. It was absolutely divine to see all the excitement and the love. No hatred, violence, anger or ugliness. No overblown celebrityship either. A young couple who have such humanity and dignity, know how to connect, how to have fun, how to be real.

But obviously not enough people want to see that. If they did, wouldn’t we see more of it in the news? And in the papers. This civilization we have has blood-lust running through its veins. It’s weird, even reality shows apparently created for entertainment are becoming more and more about making people suffer as much as possible. Who can enjoy watching that? More to the point, why?

Piers Morgan interviewed various journalists over the Casey Anthony trial and made the point that trials like this are a media shark feeding frenzy. He seemed astonished that people would get off on the spectacle which had really been created by so much suffering.

But honestly, Piers, what’s new? People have been gathering en masse since Medieval days to watch hangings and public executions. What about the Romans, throwing Christians to the lions? I guess it was the earliest form of reality entertainment. It seems we’re not far from that again. Scary. I hope it’s a phase the world is going through, one which will pass. Maybe we’re living in a kind of dark ages even though we think we’re civilized.

Nothing ever stays the same, though, so maybe we’re heading towards an age of respect, of kindness and gentleness towards ourselves and each other, absence of greed, healthy self esteem. An age where real sanity prevails and violence of every kind is seen as revolting, disgusting, the ultimate in everything that’s unattractive in every way. An age where nobody gets off on watching others suffer, or on suffering themselves for the sake of being a martyr.

An age where beauty is more valued than ugliness, and life is a softer, happier thing all round. A true Renaissance. I'll raise my glass to that.