Since the Celtics are currently self-destructing in game 6, I figured it was a good time for an update.  I’ve decided to take this blog in a slightly different direction, since I realized having a central theme would restrict me too much.  I have to be able to blog what I feel like blogging, and that may not always fit into a central narrative.  That being said, I will try consistently write about things that “matter”.

A couple days ago, my friends and I were discussing the phenomenon of trash TV and someone made the observation that as time goes by, the trash only gets trashier.  Consider that this whole thing started with the “The Real World” which was a fairly harmless and occasionally watchable look into the lives of obnoxious college-age kids.  While their antics were hardly “normal”, there was usually something a normal person could relate to.  Fast forward a few years, and we get Survivor, which had an interesting premise, but wasted it by giving us a look into the lives of insane people who get off on backstabbing each other and playing silly games in the jungle.  Big Brother tried our patience by deliberately using the same formula, but setting it in a pretty ordinary house.  Awesome.  But these were just warm-up acts.  The Bachelor (and the Bachelorette) positively reveled in the destruction of the institution of marriage, while the Apprentice seemed to intentionally rub our faces in the fact that rich people can just be crazy douche-bags who don’t have to be good at anything.  At this point, I took a step back from television and kind of lost track of new shows, but I still managed catch episodes of “The Hills”, “I Love New York”, and “Hogan Knows Best”, all of which were abysmal.  

Finally MTV has come full circle with “Jersey Shore”, which is essentially a “Real World” remake, minus the class.  The Jersey Shore (and Seaside Heights in particular) is already known for attracting trashy douchebags, but this show took things up a notch by recruiting the most ridiculous people they could find from surrounding states, focusing heavily on Staten Island, which should tell you all you need to know.  ”The Situation”, which is an actual nickname chosen by one of the cast members, pretty much personifies this train-wreck MTV calls a “tv show”.  Listening to this man talk makes me physically ill.  I have actually sat through an entire episode of this show and I can tell you that not a single character is redeemable, and their existence reflects poorly on all of humanity.  I’ll just come out and say that “Jersey Shore” is a steaming pile of dog shit.  If your reaction to that is “well duh” then thank you for making my point.  Everyone knows how horrific it is, yet we are powerless to stop it.

The trend is disturbing, to say the least.  In the span of something like 15 years, trash TV has gone from mildly entertaining, to completely unwatchable, to violently offensive in its vapidness and stupidity.  Worst of all, it has somehow evolved into an utterly unstoppable force of nature.  This led me to suggest that we are approaching a trash singularity, if indeed we have not already reached it.  At this point, crivelliman said I should post this observation on my blog.  So there it is.

Now, I promised to to blog about things that matter, and you’d be right to accuse me up to this point of doing the exact opposite.  But the singularity of trash gives me an opportunity to discuss the actual “legitimate” theory that inspired it: the so-called “technological singularity”.  

Unfortunately, the next part of this post is rather long, and of rather different tone than the first part, and it’s 1am and it’s not quite finished, so I’m going to wrap things up and post the rest tomorrow.  So prepare yourselves for the thrilling conclusion!

—

“Relax, Doc! It’s me, it’s me, Marty!”
“No, it’s can’t be!  I just sent you back to the future!”
“I know.  You did send me back to the future, but I’m back.  I’m back from the future!”
“Great Scott!”

TO BE CONCLUDED…