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Technorati'My Super Sweet 16' and Everything That's Wrong with America
Have you seen this show? It's like a great big warning sign about the level that inequality has reached in America today.
The show reveals super-rich kids as they put on 16th birthday parties of gargantuan proportions. At the same time, the show also reveals many of the dangerous and worrisome trends in society more broadly, trends that might even make Leona Helmsley roll over in her newly dug grave. Here are the top four scary things we can learn from watching MTV's "My Super Sweet 16":
1. At lot of people have WAY TOO MUCH
In one episode, the birthday boy spends $250,000 on jewelry. In another, the birthday girl gets an $800 manicure with real diamond inlays. In another episode, the birthday girl spends $5,000 on her dress. Mind you, here are people spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on 16th birthday parties in a nation where over 37 million families live in abject poverty on less than $20,000 a year. Worldwide, there are more than 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 per day.
Think about this for a second. There have been 46 episodes of "My Super Sweet 16". Let's assume the average spent per party is $500,000. That's $23 million spent on 46 sixteen-year-olds. That same money, distributed in the world's poorest communities, could double the standard of living for over 31,000 people for one year. Hmm... But I guess these sixteen-year-olds really need such extravagant parties, not to mention the expensive luxury cars that each kid inevitably gets as a "surprise" gift at the end of each episode.
In the United States today, the rich are richer than they've ever been and while many of the rest of us are struggling just to get by. Bear in mind, as foreclosures have risen rapidly in the United States, luxury yacht sales have also skyrocketed.
2. A lot of people REALLY have WAY TOO MUCH
I know I already made this point, but it's important. The top 1% of Americans control 19% of the wealth. And they're not necessarily putting that extra money into creating new business investments that kick start jobs in poor communities. They're spending it on yachts and private islands and other obscene luxury items, which the rest of us then watch on MTV and E! News and the Wall Street Journal, feeling jealous and inadequate. In an era where inequality has never been worse and the planet can't continue to stand for such lavish excess, the glorification of wealth leaves many of us wanting to be rich, too, instead of wanting to tax the hell out of the super-rich who've made their money largely on the backs of poor and middle class workers.
But we can't criticize the super-rich if we're too busy wanting to be rich ourselves.
3. Everyone wants to be famous
I'm struck that the Super Sweet 16 birthday parties seem mostly about creating for the spoiled brats the sense that, at least for a moment, they're famous. Inevitably, in each episode, there's the scene where the birthday boy or girl arrives at the party destination in a stretch limousine or horse-drawn carriage or something, friends lining the street screaming --- not necessarily out of adoration but probably to be the one adoring-seeming-enough to get on camera. The birthday brat steps out of the car. The fans go wild. Just like being at the Oscars, or being president maybe.
Except, of course, these sixteen-year-old rich kids didn't do anything to earn fame. They bought it. But the fact is that it's enough, at least for one night --- that these kids and their parents are willing to spend what in some cases amounts to more than the annual gross domestic product for a small island nation, says something about the nature of fame and celebrity today. When we elect millionaires because they buy their way into office, when our most talked about celebrities are best known for infrared videos and DUIs as opposed to... oh, I don't know, maybe talent... we should start to worry we've become a deeply shallow country where who we are and how much we have matters more than what we do --- where buying fame becomes equivalent to earning fame if no one pays attention to the difference.
4. And by the way, a lot of people have WAY TOO MUCH
It bears repeating. We can't have an honest conversation about how to address poverty and inequality in the United States until we confront wealth and the reality that wealth, directly and indirectly, causes poverty. Directly, those with money are often getting more of it because others underneath them are getting less ( e.g., the Walton family which profits from the low-wage sales clerks and sweatshop workers behind Wal-Mart). Indirectly, those with lots of money inflate the costs of things the rest of us need --- like gentrifying affordable neighborhoods into luxury enclaves --- or drive down the quality of services the rest of us rely on by privatizing their own part --- like putting their kids in elite private schools instead of public education.
The problem is that the rest of us --- those struggling to make ends meet, with shaky health care or no insurance at all, with mounting credit card debt and college tuition, facing a pile of economic worries that only seems to be getting bigger --- don't seem to think the solution lies in holding the super-rich accountable through taxes and other regulations. Instead, we each take a sort of individual salvation approach, as though the economy is a deepening hole so the only solution is to find your own ladder. But there are only so many ladders. And those at the top tend to be operating big digging cranes that make the hole worse. Couldn't we instead embrace solutions that improve the economic situation of all of us --- including taxes on super-rich individuals and businesses that help fund public education and universal health care and the things we need as a society if everyone is to succeed?
I usually watch "My Super Sweet 16" at the gym. I'm generally paying more attention to the show than my abs, though inevitably several moments per episode I double over in discomfort, which is kind of like a sit up. My hope is that when the rest of America watches this show, we collectively double over --- and redouble our efforts to create a just economy that works for everyone.
Sally Kohn is the director of the Movement Vision Project, working with grassroots community-led organizations across the United States to identify our shared, long-term vision for the future.
75 Comments so far
Show AllI'm only 13 and i know better than some of these 16 year olds that money does not grow trees and that all that money they spend could be spent on something a lot better like donating money to a good cause. But it's not the girls faut it's there parents. My parents have always showed me helping people is better than receiving a BMW or a big party. I rather spend 20,000 dollars helping a person in need than spend 5,000 having a party just make my friends like me more. Those girls need a BIG reality check.
This show is absolutely incredible. I just watched an episode, thats right, an entire episode which resulted in me yelling at the TV (I was alone haha) and almost pulling my hair out in frustration knowing the stupid imbecile 16 year old fuckin' douche bag wouldn't hear me, and if she did she surely wouldn't have listened to me anyway. This particular girl was moaning to her father that she would be terribly embarrassed if he didn't buy her a car, because everyone attending the party would be expecting her to receive one for her bithday. This resulted in her father saying no, and something along the lines of "you can't always get what you want, just this once" etc. At this point I laughed at the stupid cow as she whined and decided to take it up with her mother.
Near the end of the show, to my disgust, they came out with a fuckin' car. Don't mind my language, things just get a little heated with me when I see spoilt brats, and parents handing their money out to their undeserving children, like its nothing. The best part of the episode was at the start when she was handing out the invitations a bunch of students were mocking her, calling her "empress" and bowing down to her feet. Mind you, I guess they were just a little jealous as they didn't receive an invite. Oh another great part were her best friends "flirting" with her boyfriend, who she had earlier snobbed as she thinks she's way too cool for him! Great success!
I do have a very small soft side for these kids, as they are raised by incompetent parents and I guess they may not know any better. Sadly, the trend will continue, their children will be the same, their childrens children etc.
Dear Brooklyn----
Well said, and well taken. The campaign to counter the CIA's Wurlitzer and the NAM's Casio is long and uphill. Sally Kohn's slamming the Sweet 16 parties has its place in the awakening of America's sleeping populace.
I have nothing against communists, socialists, or anarchists; but all things considered, I have plenty against capitalists, including the politically correct green ones. Capitalism is probably the most destructive ism we're dealing with.
In amy event. catch you later in the digital ether.
Dear Rainsford,
I think that we agree more than we disagree. The "communist?" in my post wasn't an accusation. I was referring to myself; I thought that others reading and posting comments would accuse me of being communist. You are correct to an extent about how we (meaning the u.s. in general) are seen by the world. Yes, it may seem to the outside world that we've sat idly by while the kleptocratic, rapacious top sliver of the u.s. has run away with the nation and is in the process of trying to make the rest of the world its plantation. But not all of us here in the big house are going along willingly. Some people are angry and don't know where to begin venting their frustration or how to constructively direct it in a manner that begins to take the country back from the thieves and thugs in high places. Some people don't know enough to be angry. And here is where I think articles like Sally Kohn's are worthwhile: NYC steam pipes are rupturing in the middle of rush hour; bridges are falling; hospitals are closing across the nation; government agencies that were supposed to work on behalf of the people have been taken over by greedy industry insiders; health statistics are sliding backwards. (I won't even get into Iraq and Iran--no pun intended). She doesn't say all of this in the article, but when a reader can juxtapose the sheer amount that can, and is, being wasted on a sweet sixteen with the crumbling (for most of us) country...it has got to get the blood flowing, the mind churning--eliciting the idea that something has gone horribly wrong. I suspect that you didn't need this memo/her article...you seem to be well informed. But I think that people getting worked up over this type of issue can get (some) people up off their ass and stop the idle sitting. It's up to us to (try) to direct the energy. Without the energy-the spark-there is nothing.
Dear Guy frum Brooklyn----
Sally Kohn probably isn't envious to the point of wanting five pallet loads of cash. But I think I oughta stay with my more general position that we of the USA are far more envied and hated than admired. I say this because we have sat idly by and let the multinational industrial capitalists seize and utterly defile what was at least a half-assed attempt at representative government. And now, in the name of the USA, these creatures are in the process of destroying Iraq, getting ready to do the same to Iran, and making trillions off the drug trade.
You don't need to be a commie to feel a bit of hostility toward these people. The world would be a far better place if there were much more sharing than what we see today. But getting worked up about these $500,000 birthday parties is totally unavailing. It's misdirected energy.
Great article...I agree with whateveryousay. There's enough for us all but some are never satisfied and make it tough for not only the people in this country but the rest of the world. @rainsford: You may be projecting when you accuse Sally Kohn of being jealous. That's not how I read the piece. The simple message and fact is: the economic pie is not limitless/infinite (the world is finite). In order for some to be wealthy enough to waste money/economic resources, someone has to go without. And your point about the rest of the world having murderous hatred for americans...canard. Sounds a bit like: we need to fight them over there before they come over here. However, if you truly believe what you're saying, how about we practice a little self-preservation: buy them (the murdering horde) off. That's right, buy them off...tax the crap out of those who have enough to waste and raise the standard of living for the rest of the world. You'd feel safe then, they wouldn't want what you have, and you'd still live comfortably. Communist? maybe, i dunno. But wouldn't it be better than cowering in the fear you proclaim? The ipod's not so much fun if you can't listen without the fear of some smashing you over the head for it. just my two cents...
Right you are, rainsford!
all you communists disgust me.
Surely I'm not totally alone when I say Sally Kohn wrote this piece while dripping with envy. Sally doesn't wanna throw these kinds of parties herself--she'll just take five pallet loads of money (without shame or guilt) and be more discreet in her actions.
However indignant we may be about the obscenely rich and their excesses, nine global citizens out of ten probably feel murderous hatred toward every American who has a house and a car and a flat-screen TV, or even an apartment and a 10-speed and a table-top 19-inch black-and-white.
Wake up, Sally: If the unwashed hordes ever do kick down the ramparts and come looking for nice well-fed Americans to kill, they won't pass you up on their to get me.
Uncountable millions of us are clinging to the coattails of the Great Capitalist Beast as it roars across the planet, raping, maiming, slaughtering, whatever. Yes, we cling desperately, denying all the while our part in the crimes.
Surely I'm not totally alone when I say Sally Kohn wrote this piece while dripping with envy. Sally doesn't wanna throw these kinds of parties herself--she'll just take five pallet loads of money (without shame or guilt) and be more discreet in her spending.
However indignant we may be about the obscenely rich and their excesses, nine global citizens out of ten probably feel murderous hatred toward every American who has a house and a car and a flat-screen TV, or even an apartment and a 10-speed and a table-top 19-inch black-and-white.
Wake up, Sally: If the unwashed hordes ever do kick down the ramparts and come looking for nice well-fed Americans to kill, they won't pass you up on their to get me.
Uncountable millions of us are clinging to the coattails of the Great Capitalist Beast as it roars across the planet, raping, maiming, slaughtering, whatever. Yes, we cling desperately, denying all the while our part in the crimes.
iwarrior is right on target. Words like "hater" and "jealous" creep up. REALITY CHECK. I'm not jealous of their lame birthday parties, nor do i hate teenagers any more than i hate some of the stuff my 8 year old says. They are children, remember? What i do hate is that some fuckwit MTV executive has a job, no a career, in promoting and producing such spiritually and morally bankrupt T.V. What I'm jealous of???? How come I can't ask "mommy and daddy" for money when i want to go to the DOCTORS.
I'm a newbie to this site and i have to say i am heartened to read such eloquent and thoughtful opinions from the representatives of the USA. Oh, if there were only more of you that great nation could actually be a great nation. How many have studied the similarities the US has with the Roman empire, especially its last days, and how many are scared by that.
I hail from the beautiful commonwealth of Australia, some may say the 51st state of the USA, and all the issues raised here are identical to ours. Our Prime Minister's party has today been discovered to have made around 160 changes to facts on Wikipedia to cover its lies and incompetencies.
There is a new internet movement here in OZ, called Get Up, which uses the internet to spread the word about things the public should know and to give them an opportunity to sign petitions or take action when Governments attempt to force immoral or unfair changes upon us. Is there a similar movement in the US?
The sad reality for the western world is that the economic system we have been led to believe is the best and fairest for all, capitalism, is by definition, self defeating and dictatorial. That is, the winner of the competition, supermarkets for example, then sets prices and availabilty levels wherever it wants. It tells us what to buy and decides how much we pay and how much we will be paid when the only work available is for the one or two companies who emerge as the victors. To critisise the young wealthy spoiled brats is to critisise our own system of capitalism. to the winners go the spoils and the losers can pleaase themselves.
If only the human condition could advance beyond the mindset of personal gain before all else, then we could really find that a socialist society could work. Unfortunately humans need to oversee the fair dispursement of goods and services and where humans are involved so are greed and corruption.
There's one belief that gets me through the day-Karma.
Peace and love.
Actually, the idea of diverting the attention of the lower classes in order to keep them content and in their place goes much further back than Orwell. The Romans came up with the idea a couple of millenia ago: "Panis et Ciruses" (sp?) It means "Bread and Circuses" (the circuses being blood sports in the colliseum, not acrobatics and clowns for the kiddies), and it still works beautifully today. Add to that Goebells formula for exerting control by keeping the population terrified with the threat (or reality) of war, and you have a winning formula for ensuring the perpetuation of class division. Add to that as well the "dumbing down" of the population and the decline of literacy after centuries of striving by educators to ensure every citizen could read and write, and finally give near total control of the media to one or two of the super-rich, who bombard the population ceaselessly with a plethora of ever more glittering, ever more violent, imagery at a speed so great the mind cannot process the content but enters instead into a passive, hypnotic state of addiction and you have... the United States of America, today.
Consider how few in this country read ANYTHING AT ALL; then consider the size of the self-selected audience that reads COMMON DREAMS, and is it really so surprising that the fifty percent of people that even bother to vote do so on the basis of ten second sound bites from candidates groomed and packaged like film stars real or otherwise? The number of people in the US who cast their ballots on the basis of a candidates ability to govern is too small to make much difference compared with the vast majority that look for "likeability" and for "understanding people like us" or even "someone you could sit down in your living room and have a beer with".
They must be laughing themselves sick in Europe, especially in France, where intelligence and erudition in a candidate is actually valued. The anti-intellectualism of this country ensures that a candidate must appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to get elected. I remember reading an article in the LA times magazine that did a linguistic analysis of Bill Clinton's speech patterns during the 1992 presidential race. The author found that Clinton had, during the preceding year, deliberately exaggerated his "southern" accent, removing any traces of years spent in the UK as a Rhodes scholar, or any other elements that might make him sound less "down home". His team found that audiences responded best when he came across as a "good 'ole boy" rather than the highly educated, intellectual man that he was, so he made the changes and got elected. Al Gore made no bones about his intelligence and expended no effort "dumbing down" his personality in order to come across as someone an average guy might want to drink a Bud or a Coors with while watching TV -- and he lost the election (all right, he didn't actually LOSE the election, he was robbed of the presidency by the Supreme Court Jesters and the fools that actually believed there was no difference between Republicans and Democrats and cast their protest ballots for Nader.)
This time around, the GOP will need a Deus ex machina in order to get one of their party elected Prez, presumbing that a different God in the machine doesn't act first to declare martial law by creating or allowing another "precipitating incident" to happen, thus turning the de facto fascist government we now live under into an open dictatorship.
Re: CptPicard, on moving to Europe
My greatest dream for the past twenty-five years has been to move (back) to Europe. I attended a drama school in London in the early 1980s, and spent all my free time in France. After my visa ran out, I spent months and months trying to find a job -- any job -- in Europe only to hit a brick wall everywhere I looked. I would have taken anything at all, just to go back (I worked as a bartender at two different places in London and cleaned houses to support myself "on the black" while there, at lower than minimum wage (at least dinner was free.) Maybe things have changed now, but back then employers had to jump through so many hoops to hire an American that I couldn't find anyone willing to do it.
Now I'm sure it's too late for me (I will be sixty this year.) I have wante out of this country all my adult life, but the only solution I have ever found was to marry someone for citizenship, which I was unwilling to do, so here I am -- still stuck in the good 'ole USA. The right winger super-patriots are fond of saying "America: Love It or Leave It". If only it were that easy. It makes me absolutely crazy thinking about the workers from third world countries that have flooded both Europe and the US, when Americans cannot seem to get work ANYWHERE. I thought you either had to be a high-tech computer whiz with job knowledge/experience no one in your prospective country has, or overstay your visa and risk deportation if you wanted to live in Europe. As far as I know, at my age no other country would take me anyway, as the cut-off is usually 40-45.
America, "Love It Or Leave It"? I can do neither, unless you or another reader can show me how.
my sentiments exactly! haven't owned one since '73, when I learned about brainwashing
have y'all read Al Gore's piece on why TV countermands democracy …("a lot of the discussions leading to the French Revolution happened in coffee houses…")?
shut it off and get a life
preferably a life that helps others
I work full time running an alternative learning center where all the children left behind (we're the 49th state for education) come for help. Their families have to pay the whole bill, be get NO funds and I make 1/2 what I need to live and have 3 p/t time jobs!
would you like to do that at 62?
what about the theory that a lot of these folks are rich BECAUSE they are philistines?
when will we be able to admit that capitalism is a failure? when the planet is destroyed and "civilization" is forgotten?
2012, please get here soon...
Nai`a
Maui
Just say no...to TV.
Once again, I hear the outcries of the poor enraged people of America, but what are YOU doing about it? America needs YOU to get off your couch, stop watching these ridiculous shows on MTV, get out and fight for what you want! My advice is to get specific, pick one issue and do everything in your power to start or join a movement to change things. I personally think there is a lot of talking, but no doing. Get out there and do something about it!
We ARE in a crisis people! Why does it take thousands of people getting MURDERED before Americans feel the need to change things? Why do we think that the only enemy is foreign, when the actual enemies lie within our own governments and each individuals lazy complacency. Our inability to organize ourselves into a unified movement is the reason why things do not change.
We are like animals being fattened with consummerism, mind numbing "reality" t.v., and FEAR! What are we being fattened for you might ask? The slaughter of our free will. The free will we need to make decisions and choices about the world around us. Keep them fat, happy and always wanting more and they will fail to see the crisis that surrounds them. If all we care about anymore is owning a new car, new house, new shoes, new clothes, new i-pod, new flat screen t.v., and if all we watch on t.v. are things that make us want more or make us afraid, we will never see the "real" world and what is really going on.
Do Americans only care about the material things that life can offer? What are we doing? Where are we going? What goal does capitalism offer us for the future? A bunch of morally devoid people with lots of really cool stuff? WTF!
GET UP! STAND UP! STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS!
there is very little true capitalism.
What we have is state assisted capitalism.
Ah, "My Super-Sweet 16"
aka, "Bridezillas in Training"
Check out Thorstein Veblen's 1899 book entitled The Theory of the Leisure Class. It's scary how on point Veblen was over 100 years ago. Conspicuous consumption and a strive for the working class to reach the leisure class is a perpetual struggle that is getting much worse with the MTV "Bling-Bling" generation. I believe this is a symptom of an ailing capitalist culture. Without competing socioeconomic systems capitalism has no one to take competitive advantage of but itself and soon reaches a point of capitalist-cannibalism in which the wealth becomes super concentrated amongst the few (even more so than it already is).
August 20, 2000, New York City:
The Al Smith dinner, hosted by Archbishop Edward Egan, is a traditional forum for presidential candidates, although in past years, the abortion issue has kept some candidates away.
The event is named for the former New York governor who was the first Roman Catholic ever to be nominated for president.
The presidential candidates came well-armed with jokes, often poking fun at themselves.
Bush gazed around the diamond-studded $800-a-plate crowd and commented on the wealth on display.
"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores," quipped the GOP standard-bearer. "Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."
My comments: With leadership like this, what else can one expect?
Better be careful soon you'll have ungrateful spoilt kids growing up into ungrateful spoilt adults running for President and ruining the country....., shit too late!!
bligh-"These kids aren't all spoiled white "buffy's" either, they cut across all races and ethneticities."
That's one thing that struck me about the show. Most of the kids I saw on Sweet 16 weren't white. It's as if MTV is trying to be "progressive" in their celebration of capitalist excess, masking inequities if you will.
But of course, if you complain about wealth disparities, you're seen as a "hater".
"Don't be jealous." That's what people will say.
I'm too busy trying to make a living to be jealous.
But what does one expect from MTV? Their whole line-up glorifies wealth anymore. It's not just Sweet 16, it's MTV Cribs, Laguna Beach, The Real World, etc.
Pleasthink- Good comments.
On the subject of the Russian cab driver asking, after Enron,
"whats wrong with you people? Why are you not in the streets?
I'm afraid it was the same way in the old Soviet Union.
I have just finished a book from the 70's "The Russians" that is generally a sympathetic look at the Russian people of the time. Even there though, the writer describes whole highways that were reserved for the "elite", and stores that were only open to them. He describes standing in a long line to buy something, only to have a Zil limosine pull up and a well dressed woman cut to the very front of the line. When he questioned the others in the line about it, he was told that "she is the wife of an important plant manager". He said he was amazed that no one seemed to resent her line cutting, all just taking for granted that she had the right to do so. As she felt she was so entitled.
It is this type of sense of entitlement that has been passed to the children of THIS country. I live in a University town, and the old jalopy type of cars that my friends and I purchased by working jobs while I attended the University have disappeared. In their place are long lines of Lexus's, BMW's. SUV's ect. At least twice a year I or my wife are given the "finger" by one of these spoiled little cretins in traffic.
My friend that owns the local pizza parlor tells me that it is almost impossible to fill his positions with college students as opposed to the past. He says that they will routinely blow in an hour or two late, refuse to do the work that is assigned, will simply not show up if they have a date or a concert to go to, and will talk back to him as if THEY sweated the last 20 years to build the place.
Living in Georgia, many of these students are here on state scholarship, so even many of the middle class parents use the money saved to buy their kids cars and pay them an allowance. (one I spoke to was given $1200/mo "spending money". These kids aren't all spoiled white "buffy's" either, they cut across all races and ethneticities.
Parents, even if you are blessed with wealth, please make your kids work.
There's an amazing scene in Orwell's 1984 (which should be required reading right now in the USA--it's basically a User's Guide to our late capitalist era--the film version is not bad either) in which Winston, the main character (who, by the way, has already committed "thoughtcrime" by writing in a diary, and now knows he is a walking dead man) has a conversation in the cafeteria at his job with one of his less-enlightened coworkers. They work at the Ministry of Truth, which is basically the ministry of propaganda. The Ministry churns out stuff like cheesy novels and porn that keep the proles satisfied and unconscious (yeah, that stuff is coming directly from the power elite). Anyway, their conditions of life are utterly bitter: they are cold, dirty, hungry, and have to scrounge around for things like razor blades (and drink really bad coffee!!! The horror). So, while they are eating, a message is blaring on the omnipresent telescreen announcing that Big Brother has just increased the chocolate ration, the economy is booming, and the army was just victorious in Eurasia or wherever the fighting is going on (no one really knows where the war is being fought). Winston's sheeplike coworker comments that it's so great that the economy is doing so well, and in the next breath asks Winston if he can spare a razor blade.
This scene is implanted in my brain because I think it sums up the state of consciousness of a lot of working people in this country (how else can the fact that Bush was even close to getting elected, that he got enough votes to come close--I believe that both elections were stolen--be explained?). Their immediate conditions--freezing apartments, bad healthcare, charging groceries and medicine on credit cards, etc.--are miserable, and yet TV creates these wonderful worlds of wealth and plenty, where the Dow Jones is always up, and progress is always being made in Iraq. I guess I have come to the conclusion that things aren't yet bad enough for the majority to wake up. Things are bad, but not bad enough: we still have cars, TV's. Maybe that's why the government gets so panicky when ready credit isn't available: how will the proles buy their distraction devices??? The draft would be a quick wake up call, which is why the administration avoids it at all costs. My friend suggested that it would take for gas prices to skyrocket.
I had a conversation with a Russian cab driver after the Enron collapse and all of those workers lost their pensions. He said to me, "What is wrong with you people? Why are you not out in the street?" I could only wonder--why was I not in the street? I am frustrated. I try to believe that writing and having excellent discussions like this does contribute to moving things forward by centimeters...(a lot of the discussions leading to the French Revolution happened in coffee houses...), but so much has been said already...
Maybe the USA does need a draft.
Thank you SO much for this great article, these really are the things that need to be said, and said a lot and said loudly until we can shift this imbalance.
I do not own a tv and from this position can see how it has it's claws into people, often without their knowledge. Let me tell you though, it's not just America so take heart, this virus is spreading to the UK and Australia and, possibly Canada, I don't know about them.
The Human race is living in a fantasy world and sadly we have lost all touch with reality, while there are atrocities going on constantly and all over the place it seems most people are more concerned with some empty notion of celebrity and live far above their means striving for it.
It is such a pity that not only the rich, but middle class people have bought into the theory that giving their children everything possible is treating them well. They are robbing them of the satisfaction of starting out without every new material or technologic item and gradually obtaining these things for themselves. What do they have to look forward to if they have already had it all? Instant gratification may work for a short time but in time all it leads to is misery and disaster. Please, parents, let your kids need a few things and learn it is not the end of the world if someone has more of something. How prepared will super-spoiled children be to exist in a country that has lost it`s way and opportunities are few or none. There is nothing better than a slow climb through life and knowing how it was accomplished!
I cannot watch MTV anymore. It is always about some rich spoiled person showing off their crap like cribs or sweet 16. What happened to the music?
It may require a real crisis that affects all Americans (such as WW2), or a major terrorist war,to reinstate a national character that rejects outrageous & shameful extravences excercized by many in the upper income levels--while hungry and homeless people are increasing in numbers.
Unless current policies, guided by special inerests & theocracy, which increase the gaps between the rich & poor, are amended, this problem can only fester. History is filled with such analogies.
When is this show on?
Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With Kansas?", mentioned this kind of distractions people are bombarded with every day. It's no surprise that working/lower/middle class voters in Red States and Red Areas of Blue States gleefully vote against their own economic safety/security
"moved here — this place has everything you want, and if the US lost a substantial part of its "peasant" population, those parties would come to a grinding halt. "
Actually, I doubt that very much. Those remaining would be freed of producing the net surplus used to support the net resource sinks that would move out, so a heck of a lot of capital would be freed up for investment and growth, while you folks just added them to the welfare load.
Stop hating on these poor little kids. One day they will grow up and become president and create tax breaks that you won't enjoy, make real-life sacrifices by killing lots of people for oil, bankrupt the country so that people who watch tv shows like "sweet 16" will finally stop getting handouts from the government and get real jobs, and serve as a presidential role model for other young cheerleading party animal alcoholic drunk-driving moronic self-absorbed assholes.
And by the way, in case anyone thinks I am one of those who are doing 'very well' financially, I have lived under the poverty level for at least 20 of the last 25 years, and still do.
Even under a Socialist or Communist Government, the 'super rich' remain. It's just everyone else who must 'share' what's left and it isn't appealing to many people because there isn't much left to share. The super rich always remain untouched. That's the dirty secret.
One point worth mentioning is how the author of this article was clearly (and repeatedly) distinguishing these people as those who have "way too much money", the super rich. This is important because those people are the ones truly making it difficult for everyone else.
There is enough money in the world (and/or resources) for everyone on the planet to live VERY well. Do not blame people who may seem 'rich', drive BMWs or live well. Those people are living at a level that should be available to everyone (I do note here however that I am not supporting the actual 'BMW' lifestyle that is destroying the environment, etc. I am merely saying that the amount of money that requires is not so out of balance). It is the SUPER RICH who are responsible and should feel people's wrath.
Buckminster Fuller did research to determine how much money there actually was in the world and concluded that there are several million dollars for every human being on the planet.
Some people have WAY WAY WAY too much. Stop idolizing the super rich and start going after them, everybody. Leave the people who are doing very well alone, unless to help them adjust their lifestyle values/habits that promote global warming etc.
For example; how about the voters deciding that they will not elect any candidate worth OVER a million dollars, or not listen to any speaker, watch any show, etc that promotes those people. How many sports fans out there? How about boycotting professional sports until athletes get reasonable salaries? Stop going to movies and buying dvds unless it is a lower budget independent film.
It's like Howard Zinn makes clear in his People's History book, the middle class (now the upper middle 'rich') were essentially created by the super rich as a buffer. Think about it. Don't complain about people who are doing very well, stop supporting the real problem makers.
Looking at things from Europe, I really do not understand why so many people still bother living in the USA and contributing to the system. Move here -- this place has everything you want, and if the US lost a substantial part of its "peasant" population, those parties would come to a grinding halt. Forget the bullshit about the supposed stagnation of Europe... we're beginning to actually need new people, so if you've got the skills and willingness to work, you'd be welcome, and on much better terms you get at home.
so much depravity; so little rope.
The peasants always bow to the rich, always have. Course, every so often they raid the castle and BBQ the people who sneered at them til they would not stand any more. We're gettin' there.
What I thank the author for is not the imagery of great inequality and disparity but the imagery of the great abundance the world has to offer.
And the human action available to tap into the great abundance in even greater proportions? The Call To Impeach!
Help start the greatest conversation humanity has ever had - Call To Impeach!
Rich people get press, because apparently poor people like to dream (as opposed to organize). Another example of this is that murder cases involving rich people (O.J., JonBenet Ramsey) get HUGE press, causing people to believe that crime is random, when in fact most crime has its roots in poverty. It's a distraction, all right, and a dangerous one, one that prevents us from understanding and solving our most deeply entrenched problems.
I wrote about this program in another thread and have been waiting for someone else to talk about it. It's nothing new. Have we forgotten Robin Leach and his show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"?
"Champagne wishes and caviar dreams."
Ugh.
I remember one episode (I happened to catch a marathon whilst channel surfing, hey I veg out too sometimes) that featured a girl in Harlem. The girl was brought out by a bunch of shirtless men in a large box that was to make her look like a Barbie doll.
Then she came out and started dancing. These kids were acting as if she was Janet Jackson! It was ridiculous. As if these hundreds of kids at the party would want anything to do with her if she didn't have money. I can't even remember what her mother did for a living.
Shows like these are designed to perpetuate the Horatio Alger myth to the masses, or the myth that they too might hit the Powerball or become a pro athlete or music mogul or the next American Idol or Top Model. Sweepstakes are one way to keep working and poor people dreaming, 'cause if they're dreamin' they 'aint payin' attention, and they might be more likely to vote for people who favor the rich. After all, they may be rich too someday.
A fool and his money are soon parted is the only way to get future generations of the now rich to join productive society with the silly tax and economic system we now use.
arpedkedarki LOL I think we already have that show with Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Linday Lohan's latest antics broadcast over an over again relentlessly on CNN to distract us from the disastor that is US Foreign Policy in the Middle East! You all remember when it was Anna Nicole for weeks on end with no other news.
I agree bluejay. I sucked at sports as a kid. My self esteem was severely compromised--not because I wasn't good, but because the emphasis was on being the best. As an adult (after years working to improve my self esteem and some therapy), I've reclaimed the joy of running around on a ball field. I'm still not particularly good, but I play with people who don't care. The goal isn't to win--it's to have fun.
Turning 16 is a seminal moment in our society. It shouldn't be about having the perfect party. It too should be about having fun.
BLUEJAY: The premise of NUMBER ONE is astrologically tied to the planet MARS, ruler of the first sign, Aries, you know, the one esteemed by Hitler as prototype for the martial Aryan race. The idea of a race for first place, for competition rather than cooperation, originates with the lowest chakras, and/or the ego. In primitive types, no evolution occurs beyond these urges. Mystics believe there are 7 chakras and each represents a sphere of evolution in the bridge that links the animal qualities of the human being with those that are inherited from higher spiritual dimensions. I just finished a seminal work in part as a protest (I am a former educator) against standardized education with its insidious uni-forming tests. It is based on the idea that there are twelve kinds of person, just as Jesus chose 12 disciples and Abraham founded 12 tribes. The beauty of this metaphor is that the 12 places at the great celestial table allow for meaningful diversity, a mosaic wherein the purposely diversified parts enhance the whole. There IS no one right way, no one size fits all, no sublimination of the 12 originals into only ONE expression. The circle holds no sides! I believe this allegory can function as a Higher Peace model for children who over the centuries have been programmed to accept the ism divisions (racism, sexism, religious divisions, class divisions) as viable realities that clearly demarcate zones of separation among people. These divisions have been used over and over again to foment conflict. I believe the only way to transcend the penchant for violence is for people to understand a new basis for unity. The Divine circle is a good place to start. Cassandra's Tale is a 21st century "Alice in Wonderland," and it portrays the wisdom of the ages, the voices of notable mystics in the guise of the 12 Originals and the paths each one is destined to learn from taking.
SPARTACUS JONES: I like your analogy. Being a freelance writer, there was no way I could afford a new car for my daughters when they turned 16. It was awful watching my childrens' peers just GIVEN these vehicles with nothing required of them in the way of EARNING. It's clear that most of the time this kind of patronage only teaches people how NOT to perform; plus they really do forfeit an HONEST sense of deserving. It's shades of Janis Joplin, "Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends."
Years ago I watched an OPRAH show (I barely ever did, but channel surfing, this one stopped me) where the entire Kennedy clan was being interviewed. This is by all arguments a RICH family, and yet most of its members opt for public service. They for the most part, wish to make a difference. One quoted the St. Thomas Admonition, "To the one much is given, much is expected." I totally believe this, and I think it holds true for whatever area each of us may be gifted in. The artist must give their art to the world, or like a potentially beautiful plant, they atrophy.
When my children were growing up and had to watch as others 'got more' I taught them 2 lessons: 1. "When God runs out of real gifts s/he gives money" and 2. "You got looks and intelligence, money is easier." My best friend loves these adages as she's noted some real scum that indeed have $, and that is ALL they have. Without it, they'd have neither friends nor lovers. Isn't Donald Trump pretty much a sample of this theory?
Great posts here! I wanted to add a word or two about the 'self-esteem' issue. As a psychologist, I have my own theory about why the so-called 'self-esteem movement' has gone so wrong; I believe it has something to do with the subtle (and not so subtle) messages we are getting from modern American society and culture. In many different ways, people are told these days that in order to be OK you have to be 'number one'. It's not OK to just be yourself, you have to be thin, young, beautiful, rich, successful, etc. In other words, perfect.
A kid should be able to play a sport (to use just one example) and still feel that he or she is an OK human being even if he or she isn't very good at it. To me, this is what 'self-esteem' is actually SUPPOSED to mean. Instead, the push is for every child to be told 'you're number one!' (as exemplified in Bligh's post above) because, in today's world, you're number one or nothing. If every child is given a 'first place' trophy, obviously we have gone over the edge as far as 'appearance over substance' is concerned. We're not talking true self esteem here, but narcissism. Underneath almost every narcissist is a person who hates himself or herself... and modern society sure isn't helping people learn to love who they really are.
Now THAT is truly sad.
RE: MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEEN
It's called ACTING, people. Does anyone really believe that these 'reality' shows are, well, reality?
ANSWER: Yup! You people on Common Dreams believe it. The vast number of 'Sweet Sixteen' t.v. watchers believe it.
THINK people. This is just all made up B.$. The $pon$or$ of the show are lovin' your gullibility.
Doesn't excuse the content of the show. Doesn't excuse the excesses promoted for young men and women. Doesn't excuse the wretched behavior acted out in each scene. And it doesn't excuse tapping into America's inability to critically think.
But....acting is acting.
And "My Super Sweet Sixteen" is acting at its absolute worst.
mom
Just imagine what W. Bush's upbringing might have been like (if it isnt documented somewhere).
"Let's assume the average spent per party is $500,000."
What are you talking about? a half million on a party, not likely, not in the USA, Saudi Arabia maybe.
Shows like this are just training for little princesses and princes. Just like all the magazines that show teens/young adults what they "should" be entitled to as a spoiled American brat. Remember the show- Lifestyles of the rich and famous.... another training show.
I grew up in a town where 1/3 the kids got new cars after high school graduation ceremony, nowadays its prolly 3/4 . But it was me who did their homework at the threat of having my head punched in.
One kid crashed 3 new Corvettes and eventually would run his outboard motor across rocks to get daddy to buy him a bigger and more powerful boat. It all went to his head as he went to prison for stabbing his brother then beating a man in his 80's.
This is capitalism at its best, tempered by a Christian nation....be proud of the spoiled little Devils.
Pleasethink's post is right on the money. But just to extend the discussion a bit, how will the middle class imagination be decolonized? Who is going to be leading the push away from this disgusting propaganda of the super-rich? And by what means will the decolonization take place? We can't just brainwash of course, that would make us as bad as the enemy we are fighting. What constructive methods could be employed to purify the souls of the envious middle class?
No matter how degrating, if there is profit to be made america u.s. will show it. Be sure to focus on the last name of the people who write the scrip and who funds it.This is what gave rise to Hitler.
Why does the author of this article watch this putrid-sounding show (I've never heard of it, let alone seen it)? There seem to be a lot of people spending a lot of time watching these disgusting shows that rational beings would NEVER waste a second on. If the show is so bad, prove that it's bad by switching to something else (or turning the tele off)! The networks/cable channels only run this crap because so many women are watching it while working on their abs! There will always be repulsive, evil, spoiled scum-folk so long as there are humans, but watching them is enabling them further. Ms. Kohn, I agree with what you say above, but you ARE part of this problem!
A rich friend of mine asked about giving her son(an only child) a car for his 16th birthday last November. She drives a 2005 GMC Yukon and her husband dives a
Lexus. They also have a 2000 yukon with 100,000 miles on it so if you do the math, three cars three drivers, kid gets the old Yukon right? Wrong. Against her husbands' advice my advice, and several other older friends who are equally wealthy(I'm not)as she is, and have grown children, bought him wanted he wanted a $30,000 BMW convertible. Good safe car for a young teenage boy. Now i have known this young man since he was about 10 and he will probably drive it responsibility. But his mother has always given him everything else he wanted,,Ipod, fancy cell phone, $125.00 designer sunglasses the list goes on.
So the ultimate question is what kind of message is this young man receiving and what kind of work ethic will he and all these other super 16 birthday children have?
I have nothing against anybody flying as high as they can fly -- provided they do it on their own wings and not on somebody else's back.
The problem isn't even that some people HAVE too much, but that they've come to believe that they are ENTITLED to have so much because ---- well, a little weak on the actual reason, I guess the fact that they HAVE so much is PROOF that they're entitled to have so much.
And yet, somehow, in my experience, it seems to be the people who have the least who appreciate it the most and are most often willing to graciously share what they have.
The really, REALLY sad part about these spoiled brats and their adult counterparts is that they crave wealth because then they can make or entice people to treat them AS IF they loved or cared about them. They buy paintings of the sun, but don't get any warmth or light from them, so they buy more and more and bigger and....
But there's no real substitute for sunlight.
Or for love either.
Maybe that's why it always seems like it's the rich guys who wind up blowing their brans out?
These self-indulgent super-rich trigger my anger all right. But I feel a little bit sad for them, too.
Just my personal opinion.
sj
www.spartacusjones.com
millions of people in the streets didn't stop the war and barely made the news. millions of naked people occupying the halls of congress will get the attention of the Vichy Democrats and would get nearly as much coverage as Britney and Brangelina. .
I bet ya two bits (which is all I can afford) that the parents wrote off the entire party as a "business expense" leaving the rest of us to foot the bill for the lost tax revenue.
[more irreverance at resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
The good news is that the obscenely wealthy get dumber and more decadent with each generation, which means we're in for lots of cool headlines in the near future, a la Hilton, except even better, thanks to her raising the bar so, er, low.
I've got an idea for a new "reality" show.....it's called "RICH PEOPLE ARE CRAZY." It simply focuses on the daily acts of various rich people, which should be interesting enough, what with all their narcissism, psycho-pathology, etc. Another show called, "WE ARE POOR," should be programmed to be broadcast right after...
This is how they keep Americans fat, dumb and ignorant. Feed them full of bullshit and consumerism, knowing that 99% of them will never obtain what the 1% has. That's what the morally and spiritually bankrupt USA is all about.
In the end, they'll get theirs. They'll never be happy becasue wealth is all they have. They'll keep buying and spending, but it won't do any good. Luckily they can buy doctors who will write perscriptions!!
The Morlocks are hungry!!
bligh,
I have to agree about the self esteem mania. It's so much better for people to learn about their deficiencies as young children than for them to find out when they are adults when they are much less adaptable and less able to remedy them. It is better to suffer the mildly painful vaccination against incompetence or uselessness than to later get the disease.
Mass media culture: not just the icing on the cake, but the propaganda that reinforces the interests of the ruling class and blinds the proles to their own real conditions of existence. Roland Barthes got it just right, in the 1950s, in "Mythologies":
"The same 'natural' varnish covers up all 'national' representations: the big wedding of the bourgeosie, which originates in a class ritual (the display and consumption of wealth), can bear no relation to the economic status of the lower middle-class: but through the press, the news, and literature, it slowly becomes the norm as dreamed, though not actually lived, of the petit-bourgeois couple. The bourgeoisie is constantly absorbing into its ideology a whole section of humanity which does not have its basic status and cannot live up to it except in imagination, that is, at the cost of an immobilization and an impoverishment of consciousness."
I dream of an event that will cause a mass media blackout, which will force people to look at what is really going on around them, in the real world, and to shape their opinions about politics based on their real needs, not needs constructed for them by corporate media. Corporate media immobilizes us, poisons our desires and imaginations, and makes us politically impotent. Part of the revolution has to be a revolution of the imagination, a decolonization of the American working class/middle class imagination.
I think the program showcases the unbelievable sense of entitlement that many parents have passed to their kids. Worrying that little Jenny or Johnny might actually have to face a hardship or, gulp!, have to fail from time to time, these parents turn their kids into spoiled little tyrants that are totally unprepared for the real world. The rich throw money at them, making sure that they have every whim realized.
The excess makes you want to throw up.
This is not only a problem for the rich, however. People from all classes in this country obsess that "their little darlings" might be challenged, or get their feelings hurt, or someone might do something to hurt their "self esteem".
We have all become "self-esteem" junkies for our children. But self-esteem is based on REAL accomplishments, not fake ones.
Example:I teach martial arts as a hobby. At a kid's tournament,sponsored by the city, I was instructed to only hand out FIRST PLACE TROPHIES to ALL participants. Otherwise, we would damage their "self-esteem". You can imagine how the boys and girls that actually EARNED their first place trophies felt about it. Two of them thru them in the trash on the way out.
God help us all.
I've seen the show and I was absolutely disgusted. Imagine my surprise at hearing my cousin (who was coming up on her 16th) go on and on about how super-sweet sixteen parties were all the rage, and how she couldn't wait till her big day, it was going to be so perfect.... I realized right away she had been wallowing in the shallowness that is today's MTV, and that made me sad.
You've misstated the problem. It's NOT that they have too much. There's nothing wrong with being rich. It's that they use their riches in such poor ways.
Stupid rich people suck. Bill Gates wants to import qualified geeks to facilitate MO money for Bill Gates. Why not not hire locals and implement a little job training. Lee Raymond retired dictator of ExxonMobile needed 400 million in severance pay, while many people can barely afford gas to get to work. This trend won't last. Watch your backside STUPID RICH PEOPLE.
Let's face it!
This type of programming is to dull our attention by distraction.
Remember this type of show replaces responsible journalistic programming documenting the DEATHS, both civilian and military, caused by our illegal military orienetd foreign policies around the world (not just Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine).
If you are going to be outraged, show outrage about our war crimes and our loss of Constitutional protections. This is the topic to be outraged about.
The bottom line isn't to buy lots of useless consumer items. It's the cost of real estate -- speculated, flipped, borrowed, racketeered, etc. well, well, beyond any sensible reckoning. I'm not referring to rent, condos or townhomes but ability to get straight-out equity on a plot of land. This, along with the usury industry which has bootstrapped college education, are the two greatest causes of the extinction of the middle-class.
There's some inflection point between wage-slave and investment-free. I'm unsure what the exact dollar figure it, and it depends on your investments. Oil and m.i.c. is pretty lucrative (check out Halliburton's steady climb the past 7 years). But it would seem that perhaps 5-10 million in hawkish investments and you're then able to live totally on the labors/suffering of others and the environment.
THIS is what initially convinced me to go socialist. It's just plain wrong for one person to have a lot of money and another person to have barely any. COMMON SENSE.
http://www.sp-usa.org
It seems the jihadis could use copies of that program to help in recruitment. "Now that's a Great Satan!"
Im very glad some one finally wrote critically about this show and phenomena. i have seen it too and have often felt completely disgusted at how spoiled some kids are ALLOWED to be. THESE KIDS ARE ABSOLUTELY SPOILED SHIT. and the best/worst part about it, is that they are usually the most miserable ones at their own frickin party! they get so preoccupied with everything being "perfect" and making sure certain people don't get in that they stress at everything little thing. and do you see the way the talk to their parents??? (*the ones who actually pay for their party*) they curse them out like its nothing (like they are nothing). ATTENTION RICH PARENTS OF RICH KIDS: SMACK YOUR KIDS WHEN THEY SCREAM AND CURSE AT YOU, DONT GIVE THEM MONEY.
nevertheless, these parties on this show are revealing of a dirty little secret about American society and wealth. that somewhere in our social and economic system is a process that creates and rewards the most absurd of excessive indulgence - it is glamorized for the rest of us to want and desire. where you have so much poverty, how can we allow such excess?? its like the whole system of global economics and exploitation is really set up to create little paris hiltons who spend 50,000 on a stupid dog collar.
The kids on these shows (and their parents) stir up such a rage in me because the whole thing seems beyond unfair. THEY are the real unproductive scum of society. THEY are the wretched and pitiful miscreants of this world. FUCK THEM. Id say they deserve to die, but that would be too easy. Id settle for confining them to live in any hood, ghetto or "3rd" world village for a month without all their crap. just a month. see how these po' little rich folk do.
its all good though. this whole shit is about to flip on everyone. a new world is arriving. this one is dying, and thank god for that. a change is a'coming...
American TV clearly proves that the USA has become a modern-day Sodom & Gomorrah. If there really was a God, and he obliterated today's America with brimstone & fire (probably after watching an episode of "My Super Sweet 16"), I wouldn't blame him a bit.
The REALLY SICK part is that people actually WATCH THIS CRAP!
What a waste of time!