Tales from the Tool Box

Vh1's "reality" programming is anything but. Instead, the shows seem to bubble to the surface from the depths of a bottomless cesspool of greed, confusion, humiliation, and fame, manufactured to provoke the worst in people. Seen this way, the shows seem more like cruel anthropological experiments--human soul-testing. Under guises of life-altering, redemtion-boot camps, shows like Charm School and From G's to Gents claim to offer their contestants chances to change their destructive qualities, all these shows really do is put a bunch of people with emotional problems together in a house with a lot of alcohol and let the cameras roll. The means may not be all that agreeable (or tasteful), but the ends certainly offer some insight into our species' low psychological potential.

Continue reading "Tales from the Tool Box":

Finding a Way

Thankfully, the appeal of social conservativism did not outweigh the benefits of financial liberalism in October’s presidential and senatorial races. For once, the Republican party was not successful in convincing poor white Americans to vote for them because they were on the side of God and guns, all the while quietly suppressing spending on social programs and aid that would benefit lower-middle-class and middle-class Americans and their children. Though Prop. 8 passed in California (and maybe even because it did; the injustice may ignite fervent protest), there may now be opportunity to transform the views of social conservatives by proving them incorrect (as in the case of racial equality).

Continue reading "Finding a Way":