Tales of an unraveling mind
This “article” was originally written on the evening of May 4th 1999 @ 4.20p. I was watching a movie and had stopped it in order to fix myself some peanut butter sandwiches to soothe my munchies. It just so happened that my TV was on the same channel that ran Jerry Springer in the evening. So while fixing my sandwiches in the kitchen, I had this surreal soundtrack in the background. Don’t ask me what the damn topic was about, but to anyone familiar with Jerry Springer and his band of drunken hick fans knows that every episode is about basically the same thing.
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I think I finally get Jerry Springer…its to show those of us appalled by it, just how many stupid people there are in the world, and why we should be afraid of them. Those who are entertained by this program love it for giving them violence, vulgarity, the high of being on TV (those in the audience), and the high of watching people humiliate themselves on TV (both the audience and the viewers at home).
Jerry Springer shows us that indeed North American society is like the aged Roman Empire before it crumpled under it’s own unimaginable bloat. In Rome, they dedicated a whole day of festivities revolving around the ripping apart of flesh, human or otherwise. Today our empire dedicates an entire day of programming revolving around the ripping apart of family, friends. And in the case of Jerry Springer, the tried and true ripping apart of flesh, human or otherwise.
In Rome the matches were watched by people who thought that they were of a higher class than that fighting for their lives in the ring. Today the matches are still watched by people who feel that they are of a higher class than that fighting on the stage for their metaphysical lives. Today’s spectators, at least the ones in the audience are predominantly white, mixed with people of other races who appear to want to be white. And then Springer like the Roman Emperor’s of old, incites the crowd of spectators to either boo or cheer the participants for their conduct within the ring.