October 31, 2009

America's Balloon Boy Culture (op-ed)

The verdict is in. The “balloon boy” scandal that briefly shocked the nation is over. The 10 year old boy who was thought to have floated into the sky inside a replica UFO device was found asleep in the attic of his parents’ house. The shocking twist? The parents had planned the whole thing in an attempt to garner media attention and launch a reality TV show based on their family. Lamentably, even in their complete failure to successfully pull off the hoax, society is still rewarding their exploitative ruse with attention and nationwide media coverage. These despicable scandals will continue to occur just as long as society supports them. Only if society can stop rewarding such shameful acts, can we, as a nation, elevate ourselves above this “trashy” entertainment and gain a little of our self-respect back.

When it comes to the blame-game there are many fingers to point. Most obvious would be the perpetrators of the scandalous acts. Paris Hilton’s promiscuity, Michael Vick’s penchant for dog fighting, or a deranged parents lust for stardom are certainly problematic, however, they are not to blame for the “Balloon Boy” culture that has emerged. There have always been and always will be utterly insane people doing utterly insane things. Our generation is no different in that respect. Where our generation differs is that we reward these insane acts with attention and often lucrative deals. Paris Hilton’s sex tapes vaulted her to the top of stardom literally overnight (despite that fact that she doesn’t actually do anything). She leaked one video of herself doing the dirty in a cheap motel room and her fame ballooned quickly afterword garnering herself multiple reality shows and a clothing line. Likewise, Michael Vick gets sentenced to over a year a prison for promoting and holding illegal dog fighting exhibition and after serving his jail time was awarded his own reality TV show. Both “stars” gaining much success and power from their respected scandals. Both leveraged the awesome power of the American media to benefit as much as possible form their respected predicaments.

One might then be inclined to blame the media for encouraging such acts but this notion is again misled. It comes down the simple market economics of supply and demand. The media being the suppliers of the Balloon Boy scandals and society being the ones demanding. If society was not so entranced in this low culture entertainment and did not demand it of the media, the media would not distribute it. Unfortunately, America is in love with stunts of this nature and American society continues to be the one ultimately responsible for today’s Balloon Boy Culture.

So what’s to be done about the Balloon Boy Culture phenomenon that has swept the nation over the last decade? As discussed before, there will always be crazy people doing crazy things for attention. It would be impossible to stop them all. The only way America can put a break out of this Balloon Boy Culture and regain come of its sanity and self respect is to stop fawning over these demi-celebs, especially when their actions are unsavory or scandalous.

We need to make to set a precedent. The next time a starlet is revealed to have a coke addiction or a father puts his kid on Ebay we must quickly rebuke the unsavory action and then leave it alone. Any more attention paid to the person in question will simply empower that person and encourage others to commit deeds of a similar nature. If we cease to care, the media will quite hyping it up, and people won’t be encouraged to do ridiculous things for the sake of attention. Of course the crazy will still do crazy things, but as long as we don’t applaud lascivious acts when they occur, America won’t be carried away with its Balloon Boy Culture.