Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Sign of the Renaissance #1: The end of reality TV?

As many of you know, my Signs of the Apocalypse (SOTA) series is well underway, now up to #17 -- see right sidebar for all the links.

Well, let me introduce to you... the opposite: Signs of the Renaissance (SOTR). If a SOTA heralds the coming of the end of civilization, a SOTR heralds something in the way of genesis, a new beginning, hope, which is to say, rebirth, renewal, revival, resurgence -- a sign that the Apocalypse isn't imminent, that collapse isn't just around the corner, that perhaps our civilization is coming back from the brink of self-destruction. Or not. I don't know. Suffice it to say that in this context, here at The Reaction, our civilization is at the center of a tug of war between the forces of Apocalypse and the forces of Renaissance, pulled in both directions to the point of breaking apart entirely. It seems that the forces of Apocalypse are winning, but this post provides at least some ammunition for the other side, some proof that all is not lost.

It's 17-1, but, hopefully, there's still a lot of the game left to play.

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SOTA #17 involved reality TV, specifically the returns of the Donald and the Martha to the airwaves in complementary editions of The Apprentice (the most vile show on TV). SOTR #1 similarly involves reality TV, but -- yes, you guessed it -- in a good way:

The popularity of reality TV in the US appears to be on the wane, with four out of five people surveyed saying there are now too many reality shows.

Some 82% of those in the AP-TV Guide poll said reality shows were either "totally made up" or "distorted".

Only 4% of the 1,002 questioned said there were not enough reality shows.

Yes, there's hope yet.

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