American Idol/Japanese Silence
Though I am no fan of American idol, I have usually dismissed the ridicule dished out by its judges as somehow justified because I assumed that the people auditioning were simply trying to get on TV….perhaps reproduce William Hung’s success. However, I heard an interview with an American Idol producer which said that this year they are specifically targeting the “deluded wannabees.”
As I sat in my car letting these words reverberate with me as I drove to work, I realized what the producer was saying. “We are looking for people who have either been lied to or failed to realize themselves that they are not good singers. We are going to put them on national TV, humiliate them, dash their dreams, rip their hearts out, and reduce them to tears. Why, do you ask…because the viewing audience at home will get a laugh out of it.”
As I realized that the a major part of the appeal is the shameful joy we take in mocking other people, I was reminded of a quote from the book Silence by Shusaku Endo:
“Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
American idol trashes people’s lives and justifies it because it is done in an entertaining and humorous way. It is teaching us to savor other people’s misery. Or, perhaps, it is just selling us the misery we want to see. Either way, you can count me out.
So what do you think?
