Critical Thinking

Feedback and justification are cornerstones of the human condition (psych students and therapists argue amongst yourselves). Though we like to pretend we don't need the approval of others, the opinions of others about our selves or our work often proves or disproves/justifies or negates our individual worth. Celebrities are a good, though extreme, example. They live life--for better and worse--at the judgmental whim of the entire planet. Anything they do gets photographed, reviewed, scrutinized, criticized, and made fun of, down to what they ordered at Starbucks. More than a few lucrative businesses and careers are completely, parasitically dependent on the lives and work of celebrities.

It's an infectious and soul-crushing habit. To believe it is our right to judge one another openly is just bad for the soul, but what do you expect when it's what we find to be entertaining? I thought reality TV was going to be a one-season phase--Survivor is going on a dozen seasons or more, there's a Reality Show category at the Emmys now, so it's clearly no phase--and the basis of the whole genre is judgment. American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance (what an extraordinarily arrogant title for a show), The Apprentice, America's Next Top Model, and the like all revolve around this formula: perform, judge, eliminate, and embarrass as many people as possible along the way. And what of those that put their entire families up for public consumption: Anna Nicole did it, the Osbournes, the Hogans, the Kardashians, the kids on Laguna Beach, The Hills, Real Housewives, whatever. And don't try to tell me you don't judge those on Wife Swap, Trading Spouses, Supernanny, and The Moment of Truth. Hey, I'm not innocent there, I think they're nuts for doing it.

This habit of passing judgment is so widespread, it is becoming too automatic, too broadly accepted as civilized behavior. With reality TV (a misnomer of the highest order) comes the misconception that we actually know these people; and we judge our own selves far too harshly by drawing comparisons to the flatteringly lit, carefully-conceived, (though not always as carefully controlled) images of the rich and famous.

It all goes with the voyeuristic tabloid culture in which we've found and lost ourselves. We are a small part of the masses, comfortable in our armchair ability to give fame and adoration and taketh away. To reference a rather profound speech in Ratatouille, delivered by Peter O'Toole as the supreme food critic Anton Ego: "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so." I'm not sure that The Hills is all that meaningful in itself, but we tend to lose sight that even the densest, silliest, most obnoxious person in the world is still a person.