Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 May 2006 13:46:26
What have we come to, that a man threatening to kill himself live on air is regarded as entertainment? I have watched bits of a couple of the seasons of Big Brother in the past, 10 minutes here and there whilst channel-hopping, but I don't make a point of watching it, because I find the Big Brother formula utterly repellent and without merit, whether it is "celebrities" performing for the camera (or shirking their public duty, depending), or members of the public hoping for their 15 minutes of fame. But what I have seen of this season is disturbing me far more than previous seasons have. I think it is exploitative and prurient, and gawping at someone in the depth of misery that Shabaz was displaying, when you are totally unable to help them, but just gawping for the sake of "entertainment", is just wrong. Having caught 10 minutes of it this season, I don't think I can in Christian charity watch any more of it. I find it morally reprehensible and deeply shocking.
I've done some reading around on the BBC news website, and I note that Channel 4 are claiming that the psychiatric welfare of contestants (I nearly typed "patients" or "inmates" then) is paramount, but somehow I doubt that it actually is. With the producers claiming that this year it is more "twisted" than ever, and that "more than ever before, the Big Brother house will be a difficult place to live in," I can't see that this will be psychologically healthy for anyone involved.
Is "Big Brother" and its ilk the 21st century equivalent of Ancient Rome's "bread and circuses," where Roman citizens hoping to curry favour with the populi would bankrupt themselves putting on ever more lavish, ever crueller, ever more degrading and debauched spectacles for the masses to be entertained by?
Lord have mercy on us.