Average is just that: Average.

Democracy had to pay the price of popular sovereignty in art as well as in politics. The taste of innumerable average men became the guide of the manufacturer, the dramatist, the scenario writer, the novelist, at last of the painter, the sculptor, and the architect; cost and size became norms of value, and a bizarre novelty replaced beauty and workmanship as the goals of art.
- Will Durant

If you watch the Food Network, then you've noticed promotional advertisements for a contest the channel is sponsoring. Starting in June, the network will select – with the help of you, the loyal audience – the "Next Food Network Star." Just like you or me (only with, presumably, a cooking show), this average American will have surpassed seven of his or her peers, advancing to the finals based on videotaped submissions. So, alongside bona fide food celebrities, trained chefs and restaurant owners like Alton Brown, Ina Garten and Paula Deen will be someone like you!

Color me elitist, but that's bullshit.

In the last 25 years, America has drifted from a nation of experts to a nation of amateurs. We've gone from the best and the brightest to the so-so and the mediocre. We've traded our admiration for intelligence for a love of the lowest common denominator. And it should stop as soon as possible, or else our once-great nation's slide toward irrelevance will proceed unabated.

I understand the desire for average, salt-of-the-earth Americans (full disclosure: myself included) to see – either through themselves or vicariously – their name in lights. We all want a brush with celebrity, notoriety or true power. It's human nature, coupled with thoughts of the American Dream, to want more. And that's harmless. But when we desire to replace the smartest people in the room with "people like us," it's truly dangerous.

Examples like the "Next Food Network Star," "American Idol" and "The Real World" are, to be sure, light; however, they are indicative of a greater trend.

When I watch the Food Network, I don't watch it to see food prepared by people like me. I make sandwiches. I make toast. I make so-so chicken burritos. I don't endeavor to create gourmet dishes, but when I take guidance from people like Brown, Garten and Deen, I do so knowing that they know a hell of a lot more about cooking than I do. And that's how I want it.

A music industry saturated with "American Idol" winners and also-rans is a music industry as you see it today: Bloated, lame and fit to be put out of its misery. You have to strain to find the good acts and, when you do, you love them even more for standing out from the talentless crowd.

And I know what reality is like: I'm living it. I have no desire to have my life taped or to find out what it's like when things stop being polite, and start getting real. I can see, however, why television producers keep feeding us reality television: It's cheap, it's entertaining and it appeals to what we love – the lowest common denominator. I would rather see real shows, with real writing and real acting done by real actors, not something I could see if I knocked on the door of the apartments across the street.

Think of far more important examples. How about the presidency? Why should it make us feel better when we see candidates flipping pancakes, going hunting or throwing a football? Sure, it makes them look human, but what does that mean? Isn't it a tad insane that we care more about whether we can have a beer with our president than whether we think he can save us from a fucking disaster or actually knows the difference between his asshole and a hole in the ground when it comes to foreign policy? If I wanted a president with whom I could drink a few beers, I'd vote for my friends. But they're not 35 yet. We used to have presidents like FDR. Now, we'd be lucky if President Bush could spell FDR, even if you spotted him the "F" an the "R."

So, before we spend our time looking for the next this or the next that among our peer group, perhaps we should think about the effect that it's having on America. It's time to look past what we know we can do and try to discover what we think we could do. We used to challenge people to work to bring about a brighter future. Now, all we ask them to do is be themselves. That's a mistake.

Comments

[Tom Joad]

Computers, tvs, and the influence of incompetent managers.

All of those things have contributed to this dumbing down.

Used to be computers were left to experts, now everyone (that don't know how they work, what hexadecimal is, how anything actually INSIDE works) thinks they are experts because they can surf the net, or make a web page.
But computers enable people to process (badly, inanely) information that SEEMS to them to make some sort of sense.

Tv, with all the pundits, that make wrong, pig-headed, statements on everything, but don't understand the real principles. No vision, no idea for example of the DISCIPLINE of science, of technology, of systems.

And managers that just think if they demand something and threaten, they can get their people to cheat the law of physics.

No way back til folks know what they don't know.