America’s reality: the moment of truth

By: Vanessa Daddario
Posted In: Opinion

Recently, I have had an increase in my viewing of reality television shows. This may be in part to the fact that every other channel has some sort of reality based show. From “The Soup” on E, “The Moment of Truth ” on Fox, and any dance, song, modeling, dating, cooking competition shows, it is clear that America is obsessed with other people’s lives.

However, there seems to be a startling characteristic that all these shows exhibit; they prey on human emotions. Whether it comes from a cold and cynical and somewhat arbitrary adjudication and elimination process, every moment of reality T.V. exploits people and puts them in ridiculous situations, such as a bunch of scantily clad women playing mud football to win the heart of a somewhat famous rock star. Watching one show, I couldn’t help notice the similarities that it has with an ancient sporting event. In 264 BC, in Imperial Rome, gladiators fought for the entertainment of “civilized” spectators. Gladiator matches took place in huge amphitheatres with thousands of spectators witnessing the gory mutilation of these warriors that had a social standing just above slaves. The interesting parallel to modern entertainment can be most clearly witnessed on “The Moment of Truth”.

“The Moment of Truth” is a show on fox that exhibits very similar qualities to the gladiator/spectator mentality. They ask contestants very personal and humiliating questions such as “Do you believe you might have been in love with another man on your wedding day?” and “Have you ever cheated on your husband?” They are hooked up to a lie detector test to determine the validity of their answers. As one can gesture this provides for shocking and humiliating outcomes for the contestants.

What is most disturbing is that this show’s popularity is the symptom of American society and pop culture psychology. The average American can sit on their sofa in the safety of their home and watch with blood hungry joy the degradation of other human beings. Have we as Americans become so desensitized that we are indifferent when it comes to human emotion? I think the entertainment industry and the American public need their own moment of truth. Maybe we should hook up our brain to a lie detector test and answer the question, “Have we evolved from the gladiator mentality or have we substituted physical pain with emotional humiliation?” Hopefully we all will get a “reality” check and realize that we are exploiting humans for entertainment purposes, one humiliated gladiator at a time.