ARGH!

                I am at a loss on what to write, where to start, what to focus on. Right now I only want to focus on one thing, myself. Ever since I started reading The Hunger Games, the cavity inside my chest has ached. I have grown sad, and I am not entirely sure why. I know it has to do with the barbaric actions in this book, the drawing of a “lottery” in order to watch CHILDREN fight to the death for lives. I feel empty as I try and reflect on the novel. And the main thing is I don’t want to talk about it. I want to build up my own wall and I want to disconnect. Katniss, she struck a nerve in me. Her distrust in people, her not so secret need to feel secure and be loved and protected again. Her distaste for the happenings going on. Collins did a good job in writing this novel, or at least to me she did. I feel for the characters raised for the slaughter, the injustice of this practice. I feel disgust and in this feeling I come to the realization of things in my life in my society that parallel this world. The movies we watch, the television, the sports like boxing and fighting. I see these things we do and I think we are no better than the Careers, that we play these games and watch them not really seeing what it is like to be sitting in District 12 or 11 or any of the poor Districts. Not being the person struggling for survival in a game that their chance is so slim the thought of it deters the player. And yet we pay money to see the gore and glory, the fights and the competition. We promote the continual downfall of our society. And I feel helpless to stop it. I know we aren’t at a point where we are outright killing eachother for a source of entertainment, or at least not the majority of us. But when will tire of these meaningless competitions and games, the computer generated gore? When will we move on to the real version? When will are entertainment turn dangerous? Our horror movies turn live? And because we enjoy these things, we enjoy the suspense and the horror as long as we aren’t being hurt we won’t stop it. We will let our world deteriorate into “the hunger games” into “the most dangerous game” into “the lottery”. And will it be too late. Will we be able to recover once we discover what has happened? I don’t want to think about this. I want to curl up into my ignorance is bliss. I want to pretend that not in a million years anything like this could happen. But the sad thing is I’m scared that what I have been talking about is truth. That we fall, and with it our humanity will be stripped from us. We will be no better than the fallen tributes turned into ravaging mutated dogs.

BLEH!

Not So Real?

                So for this assignment I chose to watch “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”. Why you may ask well, because it always seems to be on, and my friends have subjected me to this torture on numerous occasions so I figured I would at least get some homework done along with it. Anyway I watched that two episode special on the Kim Kardashians wedding. I was stunned and am always stunned by the way these girls act on television. Yet I guess that is why people watch them. They are outrageous. Kim is the perfect “bridezilla” but can’t be too out shined by her mother. These K. Kardashian girls bring reality to a new level, or is it the same level, where you can’t be sure how real it truly is. Mrs. K. Or Kris Jenner, or whatever her name happens to be, gets a face lift or some sort of work done for her daughter’s wedding. And they film the whole thing. These women make money off of every possible thing. Which is why I’m a little peeved that I sat through those wedding episodes even though their wedding lasted all of five minutes.. they made back all the money they spent on that wedding and then some for it to end in divorce. I feel duped. I feel like the whole thing was big script and I watched it play out before my eyes.

            As I watch previews for reality TV and as I fall under the pressure and actually watch these shows (Yes, I admit, I am part of the problem) I find myself wondering how many of these people are really who they pretend to be. And I find myself thinking that 99.99999999 percent of the time they’re just getting paid to be that person. Yet we watch it anyway. We watch these shows with no plot and we enjoy them and we pay for them to keep them running. Why? Because we enjoy watching other people make fools of themselves. We enjoy watching other people get in fights or have a bad day or have a great day and go out to the bar and get laid. We are living through these other people and instead of us going to get laid we are sitting on the couch.

            It’s time to get up, turn the TV off. Stop paying for these shows by watching and supporting them, and make our own reality. I have a hunch that it might be a little bit more fun to play the part instead of watching someone else.