By Greg Rubinson
If one good thing comes from the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, I hope that Americans will become more educated about
the rest of the world. If our popular culture is any measure of
American worldliness, then we should be ashamed by our
society’s ignorance and narcissism.
NBC’s recently concluded “reality” program
called “Lost” showcased deficits in our national
character and packaged them as entertainment.
The premise of the show was that three pairs of adventurers had
to race their way from a desert in Mongolia to the Statue of
Liberty. The prize was $100,000 and a new SUV.
“Lost” was not the most obviously distasteful of the
reality programs that have been infesting our TV culture, but it
was the most insidiously offensive. In addition to exploiting the
suffering of its glorified game-show contestants, it exploited a
country and its people by treating Mongolia like a game board and
its citizens as pawns in their game.
The condescension in the setup alone is enough to make the
culturally sensitive cringe, but the behavior of the contestants
was shameful and ignorant. They made their way from settlement
to settlement, treating the Mongolians ““ from what the
producers chose to show us ““ like they had just been waiting
to welcome American game-show contestants into their homes and help
them win their fortunes.
As the competitors offered to exchange candy, balloons, earrings
and watches (in addition to money) for help in their quest, I had
the uncomfortable feeling that I was watching something akin to
European settlers proffering colorful beads and other trinkets to
Native Americans before invading their land and massacring their
people.
I was in Europe this summer and people there were livid that, at
the time, America seemed to believe itself capable of disregarding
the rest of the world’s concerns with impunity. It is
ironic and deeply unsettling that while our political leadership
was pursuing an isolationist course, these dupes of the reality TV
mill were marooned in a foreign land with no knowledge of their
host’s language or culture. Now we have been shocked out of
our isolationism and self-obsession, and that is at least some
small bit of good that came out of Sept. 11.
“Lost” paraded the kind of insularity and ignorance
that made it possible for Americans to sit idle while our
government turned its back on the Kyoto global warming treaty, the
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and boycotted the U.N. conference on
racism.
During much of the program’s premiere installment, Joe and
teammate Courtland believed themselves to be in Russia or maybe
Czechoslovakia (perhaps they were transported by time machine?) or,
as Courtland called it more than once,
“Checkla.” Of course, maybe he meant the other
Czech Republic ““ you know, the one with a desert? For a
while they seemed to think that Russia and “Checkla”
were interchangeable ““ one foreign country is pretty much
like another, anyway, isn’t it?
However, to give credit where it’s due, contestant Lando
at least understood the potential for cultural antipathy. He
warned his teammate Carla that they might arrive in a village and
be met by natives saying, “Me no like you.”Â
Fortunately, Carla turned out to be an adept intercultural
communicator. She discovered that if one simply speaks English
loudly and slowly enough, it suddenly becomes comprehensible to
Mongolians.Â
But then we should expect nothing less from a woman who asserts
that “”˜No’ is definitely one of my least favorite
words. I don’t really think it applies to me in any
situation.”
Joe and Courtland were at times similarly resourceful. When
they managed to score a lift to the capital of Mongolia, they told
the villagers that if the third team (composed of Tami and Celeste)
came along, that they should tell them, “Me speak no
English.”
The program’s second installment revealed that Celeste is
competing for the noble purpose of getting enough money to have her
gargantuan breast implants reduced. And on a train across
Siberia, a cashless Carla conned half the guys on the train out of
their last kopeks. “Bring me money!” she demanded, then
turned to the camera and excoriated her benefactors as the
“most disgusting, dirty, nasty people (she’s) ever
seen.”
It would be hard to imagine a more embarrassing squad of
cultural ambassadors than these contestants.
The day after the terrorist attacks, historian David McCullough
commented to reporters that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams thought
there could be no greater threat to freedom than ignorance.
“Lost” presented ignorance and its companion trait
selfishness, as entertainment. But in the end, the program was
really a mirror showing the bigger picture that revealed our
collective shame.