Are You Wanting to be America's Next Top Survivor Without a Fear Factor?

Social class. Class. Morals.

Dickens.

Ah, Great Expectations. Dickens has some great things to say about social class. and morals.

So do I. I think.

Let's start with reality. Television, that is.

I really think it is the most modern example of what Dickens was trying to say. Every day, hundreds (not an officially statistic, and probably off by thousands) of people audition for shows like Deal or No Deal, Survivor, and my personal favorite: Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader? Seriously Fox, you took off Firefly for Foxworthy!?!?!?!?!? And American Idol, a million nights a week. What has the world come to?

The only people sadder than those who audition for these shows are the people who keep them on the air-the people that actually watch them. Why!?! Is there really anything to be taken away from these shows? There, I ranted and now I can get back to the point.

The point being, of course, that people will do ANYTHING for their 15 minutes. My absolute favorite example is Fear Factor, a show where people would have to do anything from eating bugs to intestines to clotted blood. Yum. I always found it fascinating that this show aired during what most consider the dinner hour. It was surprising that the commercials didn't feature Chianti and fava beans.

These people would partake in these challenges to prove that 'fear is not a factor' to them. But all they really proved is that they were IDIOTS. You weren't guaranteed any money for leaping across buses in fractions of seconds; and the money that you might get (a nice sum of $50,000) probably wouldn't cover your hospital bills a month later (well after you signed a waiver releasing your "likeness" and every other right you had to the network).

Of course there are a million other shows that don't require you to eat the placenta from a cat. Instead, you can degrade and humiliate yourself in a social science experiement where you lie a million times and tell yourself (and audiences) that it's okay. Such nice things for our children to learn.

If reality TV is not your bag (or you are just too ugly to be cast) you can always go the lottery route.

But you won't be happy. Sometime, somewhere, the money will run out. The friends you thought you had will be your friends no more. See Steve Martin in The Jerk. All you will have is a chair (or was it a lamp?) Your Bernadette Peters won't love you anymore either.

Now, if you plan on giving millions to Darfur or buying a factory to create robotic soldiers to replace the troops so we can bring them home, that's okay. But if you buy the house right next to Bill Gates and eat a truffle salad everyday for breakfast, don't ask where everyone who cared went. They went when your morals did.

Sidenote: if you want to send a little money to a charitable cause aka my student loan fund, feel free

And if anti-reality tv is a cause you feel is worth fighting for (it is!) tune into CBS Mondays at 7 PM for a wonderful show called How I Met Your Mother. Trust me, you will get more out of it than guessing money in a briefcase, and you will be furthering the cause.

California Dreamin'

We all have expectations.

We go to college to earn degrees with the expectation that we will get a good job, settle down, and have a family.

We dream of owning the six-figure car, paid for by the six-figure job, and living in the six-figure house.

Why do we aspire to accomplish such a vast range of things? And why can't everyone succeed?

In Dicken's Great Expectations, Pip tries to break the mold he was born into-a sister who rejects and loathes Pip for being born and a lifestyle that most would find retched. One reason this story has maintained it's popularity is it has the ability to relate to just about anyone.

So read the book and dream a little.