Opinion: 'Blizzard of banality' blows across TV screens

Every “Larry King Live,” Court TV and “Headline News” broadcast, every time this celebrity-soaked-insanity sloshed over my eardrums, I thought for sure this was a joke. Who, I reasoned, would savor this tripe?

Well, the sad answer is … us.

If you have not noticed, we have been fiddling with our TV remotes while our national psyche has been burning.

Consider, for just the next eight seconds, the blizzard of banality that has blown across our 42-inch plasma screens.

Britney decided to shear herself as the latest sacrificial lamb on the altar of the rich and famous. Rosie and The Donald have increased their ratings (and fortunes) by decreasing decorum. Beth Ostrosky gushed about her liaison with shock-jock Howard Stern: “I just feel so blessed that he’s all mine.”

And, this lunacy goes on.

And, the improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs, in Iraq are still snuffing out American lives in nanoseconds. There is a lurking, ominous nightmare of Pakistanis with the keys to nuclear weapons. AIDS continues to mow down millions each year. Domestic abuse is legion in southwest Missouri.

If you have not noticed, all is not well among us.

So why, in the face of profound issues, do we bathe ourselves in the banality of who was Justin Timberlake’s date at Spago last night?

Our stock answer: “It is the media’s fault.”

Well, the sad fact about media is nothing makes it on the cover of People Magazine, on the speakers of our XM radios or the screen of our iPods unless it sells. Nielson Ratings – how many of us are listening and watching – determine our media diet.

It is simple: If we are buying, the media will continue to dish it up.

So why our appetite for the asinine?

First, I am convinced we are anesthetizing ourselves with ridiculous ruminations about “stars” because we cannot handle the scariness of our headlines.

This is called an ego-defense mechanism. Whenever threats get too close, we slide into regression and start manically laughing about Winona Ryder’s latest shoplifting spree. These celluloid characters craft our coping.

Really, who wants to have an intelligent, concerned conversation about global warming, violence in Sudan’s Darfur region or meth labs in our neighbor’s garage, when there has just been a sighting of Ellen Pompeo and fiancé Chris Ivery?

This is all about the “easy button.” It is much easier to lose ourselves in fatuous verbiage about the Oscars (let’s spend about 10 minutes discussing Jack Nicholson’s shaved head) than come up with a solution for the 48 million people in this nation who do not have health care coverage.

Second, I think we are bored. I know, we are all doing more with less. The problem is the “more” we are doing has created a work force of humanoid-robots. Granted, we move faster and more efficiently, but we also are moving to the beat of some employment warden who constantly cranks up the speed on our treadmill.

The automated, spreadsheet-driven, you-can-be-replaced workplace has sucked out our hearts and our heads. We are “making our numbers” but aren’t at the same time making a life.

The only fun in life seems to be stopping before work for an over-priced cup of java, a quick lunch at a drive-through, a Lean Cuisine microwave meal and then, “Entertainment Tonight.” After all, we reason, the lives of the rich and famous are so much more enticing than our own. Bring on “Access Hollywood.”

Finally, I am convinced we get stuck with Velcro to the vacuous because our spirituality is running on empty.

Spirituality is our search for someone larger than us. This someone introduces us to the wonder and creativity of our ability to take up space on this globe right now. This awe-inspiring moment never leaves us the same.

This someone beats out a different cadence than we will hear on our Bose surround-sound. This someone gently reminds us that our faith is never a call to make a U-turn back to ourselves. Our pews may be packed, but I am having trouble putting together the “people of the truth” with the “people of the tube.”

Let’s turn it off … and let Anna Nicole rest in peace.

Cal LeMon of Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. He can be reached at execenrichment@aol.com.[[In-content Ad]]