Comments on: European exceptionalism (updated)

By: daelm

daelm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:34:27 +0000

i don’t think there’s a gene unique to americans that makes them simultaneously highly religious and prone to inventing deeply disturbed media products. (though, when you think about it, religiosity and prurience probably do go together).)

and i don’t think Mericans invented everything bad. in fact, i don’t think there is such a category as American, except in the passport-issuing sense. it’s just that the notion of trainwreck as spectacle as entertainment – as far as i can see – is an outgrowth of day-time talk shows where voyeurism for pleasure was made a norm.

i tell you what – let’s split the difference and credit the dutch with the invention and the Mericans with the perfection. ok?

By: Zamfir

Zamfir — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:42:37 +0000

Dalem, I am complete agreement with you about the wastelandishness of reality TV.

I just object to the claim that the Mericans invented it all.

By: daelm

daelm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:44:39 +0000

big brother was conceived in 1997. the business case for a reality television viewership was made by jerry springer, who debuted his show in 1991 and instantly converted it into a live spectacle, where the trainwrecks and trainwrecksesses allowed onto his show supplied the content by means of their lives. reality television was born.

every iteration since then strives to perpetuate the notion of the spontaneous spectacle, each spectacle hopefully more horrifying than the next. it’s nothing more than voyeurism writ large, as anyone who watches it knows, and it serves no purpose other than to save one the trouble of peering through the curtains into your neighbours’ house. ‘reality’ voyeurism was born, matured and brought to its pinaccle in the same country that gave the world ‘celebrity’ voyeurism.

if that awesome conjunction of needs, products and venality, lightly garnished with a complete lack of shame, isn’t the defintion of ‘cultural wasteland’ then there isn’t one.

(JQ – i’m responding to Zamfir, not Ted, by the way.)

By: Zamfir

Zamfir — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:19:32 +0000

dude, if anything’s a cultural wasteland, it’s the country that gave us miley cyrus and reality television.

Big Brother at least was a Dutch invention

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:44:46 +0000

John, there you go imposing that non-existent European culture upon us with a Jane Austen line (actually from memory I think it’s “you have delighted us quite long enough”).

Of course, Ted is American and everyone knows Americans are irony-challenged and won’t get it.

Do I get to indulge in stereotyping too?

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:56:11 +0000

Ted, you’ve amused us quite long enough. Nothing more from you, please, and, to everyone else, no further responses to Ted.

By: daelm

daelm — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:52:11 +0000

@ted

“The EU is also a cultural wasteland with nothing to project globally that anybody wants to emulate or purchase.”

dude, if anything’s a cultural wasteland, it’s the country that gave us miley cyrus and reality television. you should get out more.

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:49:21 +0000

America has a lead in these markets

See, that’s all you needed.

Yes, Sweetie, yours is bigger than all the other boys’. Much bigger. Now run along, there’s a good lad.

By: Dan Drezner

Dan Drezner — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:13:39 +0000

Pedantic note: it’s “Articles of Confederation,” not “Articles of Configuration” for the United States.

Aargh! Fixed now thanks, JQ

By: alex

alex — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:35:48 +0000

Like Ted, you mean?

Except for the power bit, obviously.

By: Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri Vieuxtemps — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Everyone feels they are exceptional, and good for them. It’s only the combination of arrogance and power that’s dangerous.

By: Hungover Guy

Hungover Guy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:31:34 +0000

As much as I can understand right now, I think you’re right!

By: Ted

Ted — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:22:20 +0000

Walt

Actually, hopefully the thinking comes from the “crowd” rather than the technology. Please feel free to contribute.

By: Walt

Walt — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:19:10 +0000

I’m glad that the Internet is here to provide for the needs of the “Look at me!” crowd, and I want to think Crooked Timber for providing them a forum.

By: Ted

Ted — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:07:34 +0000

hix

You are correct. It was always a project to politically and socially disarm hoi polloi; to substitute Brussels for Rome.