Maybe because I am in the midst of reading a book that blasts our country’s long standing fascination of wanting more, more, MORE. Or maybe because I have been watching a wee bit more television than I normally do. Maybe because I am fortunate (bleh) enough to work in the mortgage industry at a time when its basically imploding in on itself...but one thing is almost certain-America has lost it’s daggone mind. Collectively.
First lets talk about greed and entitlement. Everyday at work, I go through file after file of people on the verge of foreclosure. A lot of the cases I come across, the homeowners have LIGIT reasons for falling behind. Medical expenses. Divorce. Job loss. These are all life changing issues and are very valid reasons to fall behind on anything. Alas, they are not the MAJORITY of what I personally see. When I get a file asking my bank to take a $100,000 loss just because you saw "Flip that House" and fraudulently purchased three investment homes and didnt make good on your payments, I just want to chunk the whole mess in the garbage. Or when I do get an approval for you to sell your house for $200,000 LESS than what you owe, provided you PARTICIPATE in the loss and sign an interest-free promissory note for 5 years at FIFTY bucks a month, and you whine???!!! Orrrrrrrr...you refuse to sign any paperwork because you are afraid that the bank may come after you in the future for DEBT YOU OWE. You’ve lost your damn mind, Mr./Mrs. American homeowner.
Which brings me to television. Usually, what is on t.v. is usually a good barometer for what the country is going to, or feeling, or what have you. The other evening, I had the misfortune of having some show called "To Tell the Truth" or some b.s. like that. The premise is that you are hooked to a lie detector, and are asked progressively personal questions, and the more questions you get right, the more money you win. Bleh. Well, this particular episode was an update episode, telling us what happened with some of the big winners from previous shows. One guy had won a bunch of money, but the questions he answered and told the truth on ripped his marriage apart and divided his family. Oh, and his freshly exed-wife just found out she has cancer. But he’s $100,000 richer! (the announcer quickly slid in the cancer fact but emphasized the money part). Another update had a dude who admitted to sleeping with 100’s of women, getting paid for sex, and keeping a spreadsheet of all his conquests. His update-his girlfriend left him, and he has a perfect storm of venereal diseases. (just kidding about the last part). But the way this was presented was weird and tacky. The network is putting on this freakshow for ratings of course, and these idiots do it for money. All for our "entertainment".
There was another show that came on tonight-"My Dad is Better than Yours" or some bullsheet like that. I didnt even click to see what this was about. Hot percalatin’ MESS. And then, every reality show is about someone getting voted off; from Survivor to this show I caught on VH-1 with showbiz kids and their moms. Imagine being told you are not good enough to continue on to round two by the host Danny Bonaduce. DANNY. BONADUCE. It’s like America’s new mantra is "tell me I’m not good enough-by a cracked out, alcoholic, divorced 1970’s child star has-been." Yikes.
Perhaps the possible upcoming "pending" recession will snap this country back into reality. Coming off a high-flying decade may make us as a society step back and look at ourselves, and re-evaluate. Maybe people will stop buying more house than they can afford. Maybe they will lose the sense of entitlement that has spread like some funky green fungus on the forest floor (HA! An alliteration....).Maybe most (because you know not ALL) of the reaaaaaallly lame reality tv shows will go to that great programming graveyard in the sky.
There’s more of course, but ranting on everything that I am noticiing/reading is just too much. I dated a girl from the Bahamas who couldn’t take it anymore; she only lasted a few years here before she went screaming back home, saying that America was just too backwards for her. Sometimes I wonder if I should look her up and see if her and her husband have a spare room...or stock up on the North Face gear and take it back to Saskatoon....
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