Retrograde Reality

I may very well be degenerating culturally, socially and intellectually. Or maybe I'm just finding that it's ok to tune out and tune in to something light, fun and not altogether serious. I'm at a loss to explain, how with equal parts amusement and horror, I sat for an entire hour with rapt attention and watched a sister wax her older sister's vagina, attempt to sooth the now burned vagina with butter, proceed to an orgy of alcohol consumption on a boat followed by post-partying pumping of her breasts on the living room couch in front of sister and television cameras for millions of her target demo and psychographic, apparently like me, to see. While most of it appealed to parts of my brain I'm not yet wholly aware of, there were parts that were more "intellectual" and found resonance with the more mature and cerebral me - Khloe, reflecting on her night of debauchery and the badly hungover day she spent not being able to nurture her child or her relationship, asserted "maybe there's a balance between not being a boring mom and not being a party mom." Not exactly the Buddha but reflection nonetheless.

Leave it to me to find an opportunity for philosophy and introspection in "Khloe and Kourtney take Miami". Or maybe that's why millions watch it - that hidden among the many horrifyingly sad and pathetic moments of average human endeavor, there are little gems of deeper and baser every day life quandaries that each one of us toils with. Maybe that's what this latest genre of retrograde reality is all about - stimulating baser instincts and nature while giving cause for reflection on the universal human problems and the human condition. We've all felt Ronnie and Sammi's relationship related anguish, perhaps not quite in the color and language of their particular cohort, but we've wrestled with the same issues - knowing someone is not the right fit but loving them and caring for them anyway and finding it difficult to let them go.

I suspect I'm likely wrong - most people likely don't watch it for those subtler moments of reflection. They watch it strictly for the farts and the fights, the vomiting and orgies and the myriad other self debasing behaviors. They watch it for the same reason they stand up and cheer when a fight breaks out at a hockey match or when they secretly search the Internet for the latest leaked celebrity sex tape. There must be baser, more primitive parts of the brain at work here - what else can explain the wild success of shows like Jersey Shore where a collection of humanity's lowest forms earn millions to do nothing but go about their cerebrally impoverished lives.

I'm not sure what to make of it. Whether to be appalled at the state of our kin or to accept and embrace it as a sort of entertaining freak show of the masses. Maybe duffers and dolts are an essential part of the human tapestry - good for lowly tasks and really basic amusement. Since they are resilient and are not going away, that's what I'm inclined to accept. Now excuse me while I go watch GGW.