What seems to be part of the digestive process of the American psyche is both the witnessing of and the participation in the spectacle of humiliation. The programming of networks and certain marching orders in foreign engagements have in common the verb - humiliate.
Large audiences watch the pained faces of contestants being insulted by Simon Cowell and a dais of other questionable types. Trump telling an eager beaver, “You’re fired” collapses the face and hopes of the applicant and it sells. The Jerry Springer show has marketed joyful humiliation - audiences participate in pushing the face of another human being into the nearest pool of mud. Judge Judy snaps like a petulant and indignant terrier at the unfortunates in the dock looking for justice. And an audience giddy with delight watches as the “wise and sassy” arbiter of justice spits at the people in front of her.
The crude insult has an iconic place in the American contest. But it has become epidemic, and organized as the need to have no sympathy for losers becomes both convenient and hip. Howard Stern and Don Imus tapped into the sophomoric glee at hearing another person being slapped down. The befuddlement and hurt on the face and in the voice of the victim is gold to the programmers.
Feeding the appetite makes the appetite for humiliation grow. More and better variations at the practice of humiliating are in development.
From Columbine to Virginia Tech. to suicide bombers - humiliation runs the risk of eventually being answered. None of it is right, justified or pretty but humiliation is itself born out of primitive savagery. It has murder in its nucleus.
The song “Pirate Jenny” from Three Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill tells the tale of a woman humiliated by the people she waits on - “You gentleman can smile while I’m scrubbing the floors - and I’m scrubbing the floors while you’re gawking - maybe you can tip me and it makes you feel swell.” They shout at her - “what’s wrong with you - earn your keep here.” And all the while she fantasizes about a swarm of pirates from a black freighter coming to shore to murder all the men who have slowly murdered her with words and looks. Her rescuers round up the offenders and then they ask her, “Kill them now or later? Asking ME - kill them now or later?” She responds with deep relish - “Right now. Right now.” She completes her fantasy - “And they’ll pile up the bodies…and I’ll say - That’ll learn ya.”
“That’ll learn ya” is the moment of satisfaction the humiliated hunger for. Some will do whatever is necessary to have that moment - even if it’s their last.
Humiliation is a natural risk for any life gamble - from getting married to creating a work of art to running for office. But the culture of hyper acquisition and mammoth footprints necessitates humiliation becoming a weapon. It keeps competitors and aspirants in their place. It discourages interference from anyone wanting the same things the dominant forces have. The purpose of humiliation is to destroy the inner libido of the other. It’s meant to stop the desire to try.
The collective appetite to watch the moment of humiliation is a dangerous sign.
The impulses that were evident at Abu Ghraib have a reality here at home. The smiles on the faces of the guards were as grotesque as the offenses. They are the smiles of an audience feeling safe and delighted at the miserable plight of another. But it would be unwise not to realize as the appetite for humiliation is being fed that there will always be a percentage of the humiliated, like Pirate Jenny, who will want to wipe that smile off the collective face - even if it’s - and it often is - the last thing they do.
Bill C. Davis is a playwright - www.billcdavis.com
The so-called ‘Reality’ shows are the Nth degree of humiliation, especially “Survivor.”
Survival is not a matter of one up-man-ship, but of each one pulling their weight for the good of the group, what ever that may be. Are we nothing but a bunch of bullies?
And yet, the aspiring famous people keep lining up to be insulted and humiliated — and why not, they get to be on TV, which is apparently worth a little humiliation. I always wanted to be on TV; I strongly identified with the characters played by Robert DeNiro in “King of Comedy” and Nicole Kidman in “To Die For”; there was a time in my life when I thought that my life would “matter” if I could just get on TV, and Imight have been ready, willing and able to go for it, to do my thing and let Simon Cowell and the rest say whatever; I have daydreamed even at this late stage of life about saying to Simon “Stop being so full of yourself, you pumped up twit.”
As worrisome to me as cultural trends go is recycled celebrities doing “reality shows” about their screwed-uppedness — the classic being “Breaking Bonneduci”. Got to admit, the former Partridge family cute kid is likably open when he talks to the camera about his history of drug abuse and ongoing tantrum management problems. It’s compelling TV. Now we have Scott Baio fretting about his tendency to cheat on every relationship he’s ever had because now he’s 45 and somehow it don’t seem right.
Does make you wonder when such a large segment of the country is excited about participating in this kind of vicarous living. Now we have Bret Michael, lead singer of the has-been hair metal band Poison, running a Survivor-style elimination show called “Rock of Love” where a bunch of girls are competing to be his main groupie. The girls don’t appear to even realize that they’re humiliating themselves just as much as the aspiring performers on “America’s Got Talent” or any other of the show, and I guess the mostly adolescent males who are fans of this show don’t get it that it will never happen like that for them.
The audience that Bill Davis speaks of “feeling safe and delighted at the miserable plight of another” have no notion as to how unsafe they (and we) really are.
“humiliation is itself born out of primitive savagery. It has murder in its nucleus.”
I seriously object! This implies that the non-civilized were the ones who imparted the “gift” of enjoying humiliation to us. So civilization is a victim of primitive culture is that it? Oh and you know how much more murderous primitive societies were/are than we….except that we (the civilized)destroyed them all…..
Right.
Civilization is based on occupation. In order to occupy, one must dominate. We love domination, the kissing cousin of humiliation.
Other than that, I liked the article alot. I just hate seeing the myth of the “bloodthirsty savage” repeated over and over, no matter how seemingly innocent the cliche. It is mere propaganda. The message? If being uncivilized is bad ( bloodthirsty, murderous and so on), then being civilized is good, perhaps the best.
Well…..we’re doing a bang-up job of it aren’t we?
-Punk
I have always attributed this insatiable appetite for constructing “winners” and “losers” as part of the normalization of the most vicious aspects of capitalism. It’s all part of the greater vision of an atomistic citizenry whose fear of being a “loser” is exemplified not only in the fantasies of “reality TV,” but the realities of having no health insurance, living from pay check to paycheck, mortgage foreclosure, etc. The fact that little to no social welfare safety networks exist help to fan the fear of failure in an increasingly mean, unequal, and vicious society that villifies and otherizes the poor and the vulnerable.
Looks like my edit didn’t take, so to add to above, I believe the obsessive construction of “winners” and “losers” helps to perpetuate the atomization of society as well as fear among a populace ever on the verge of failure through out-of-control health costs, wages that have not kept pace with cost of living, mortgage foreclosures, growing inequality, unresponsive politicians who refuse to authorize social welfare safety nets, etc. This is part of a larger effort designed to neutralize the galvanizing effect of all these factors into a groundswell democratic populist movement. The “humiliation” industry serves to focus on “personal” failings and thus the legitimation of vicious, uncaring societal ethics.
People do not humiliate others - others allow themselves to be humiliated. It’s like any other emotion - no one “makes” you angry; you allow yourself to become angry. If someone feels humiliation thanks to Simon asswipe, they have relinquished emotional control to a reptile. It’s not the reptile’s fault for being reptilian.
U.S. troops do not humiliate Iraqis. President Bush does not humiliate those who disagree with him. Evangelical Christians do not humiliate gay people. Some family members and society as a whole never humiliate transgendered people. Republicans do not humiliate progressive people. Police officers do not humiliate those who “…peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances” in Washington DC. Kids do not humiliate other kids at recess. Professors do not humiliate adults in public settings.
I have even been humiliated on this website a few times. Not that this matters, but rather than being philosophical about it; why not just admit that some people will do all they can to portray you as a piece of shit for what you believe? Even the media goes on humiliation stints to those who are famous. One can’t help but feel humiliated when most of the nation finds out what a person does.
I forgot to mention that the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay are never humiliated either.
Which I think is why the Middle East in general hates the US. Our government loves to humiliate them.
and call it diplomacy!
Great article. All good comments.
If anybody, even people who believe they enjoy being competitive, could live one month in sharing and cooperation, they would never go back to stepping on each other again… I don’t believe there is a heart so hard that doesn’t hurt when it’s owner does that.
great article. it goes to the heart of what drives our society here and around the world. it’s worldwide machismo. the drive to feel good because another feels worse.
Humiliation is a power trip.
People can’t make themselves more powerful so they destroy others, in words and deeds. I saw it a thousand times on the school playground.
And people, supposedly adults, will even pay to watch others humiliated, to vicariously and cowardly join in the destroying.
We are taught to share with ‘us’ and to take from ‘them’ and we invent all sorts of reasons to divide - religion, race, gender, nationality, etc., so that we only have to share with a few ‘chosen ones’.
We as a species need to learn and learn quickly that ‘us’ is everybody on the planet before the nukes fall and the germs spread and the fear and hate destroy us all forever, amen.
Good on all you responders. I wish all Americans I have met would be such open and well read egalitarians. It lies within us and must be our mission to spread our beliefs of equality if we are to live in a relatively peaceful and cooperative world.
Humiliation of others is never acceptable.
BILL C DAVIS: I’ve missed your lyrical commentary i this forum. Thanks for once again sharing! Your points are well taken, your sense of scrutiny sharp, but let’s add one aspect to the humiliation debacle, that is the issue of PRIVACY. What I see in these programs is a normalizing of “somebody’s watching you.” The disgusting program COPS which busts unfortunate people to the glee of the viewing audience is a case in point. So is “Biggest Loser.” If the goal of our present government is to engender a 24/7 surveillance society, then the very concept of privacy must be eradicated or lessened to the extent it ceases to exist. In the beginning these shows depict the very fat or the presumed criminal in intent; but they will move into more “normal” sectors, too. I see this on a par with the young women who earn income for college by allowing VIDEO cameras in their showers & bedrooms so that voyeurs pay a fee to watch them in their au natural status.
As a spiritual being, I recognize that thoughts and actions do not exist in a separate universe; that the arbiters of that which we term karma keep records. It’s been explained by mystics as the Akashic Record, a filament that pervades the universe and records what human beings do. I don’t find this concept far fetched. Trees record weather events in their ringed interiors, the earth itself messages as is seen by the analysis of geologists in taking core samples. Can anyone here explain how I am writing these words and they are transmitted via silicon chips? There is, however, a huge difference between actions codified by spiritual agencies that are aligned with the evolutionary plan for this world and its citizens, and those that would use the knowledge AGAINST people. Many of us suspect the new Homeland Security state and its significant surveillance technologies has “the goods” on some otherwise powerful senators or congress men/women. How else to explain their silent complicity with one of the greatest crimes of history? The heist of the US treasury, the evisceration of its Constitution, the undermining of Civil Liberties/Habeas Corpus, etc and the supreme crime: that of aggressive war against a sovereign people.
Although off topic, the real reason for this war has been cited by some exceptionally astute writers in this forum: it’s the fall of the US dollar and need to maintain its stature as oil-based currency, fueling the engine of this overly industrialized (note China’s ecological status as a result of its rapid build up) planet.
We (sort of) elected a president who has an established policy of humiliating his underlings by giving them demeaning nicknames (calling is own “brain” Turdblossom, for example.)
This was the kind of guy with whom Americans (reportedly) wanted to have a beer.