President Barack Obama recently decried the “change in culture” that has altered what he called the view of the American Dream. He took a swipe at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West for being the poster boy and girl respectively of this damaging culture.
Relieving the good old days, he said “There was not that window into the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Kids weren’t monitoring every day what Kim Kardashian was wearing, or where Kanye West was going on vacation”.
He could as well have been speaking for Nigerians, nay Africans. The African society is increasingly under assault as we make advances in modernity. This is fueled by the increasingly corrupt pop culture which is heavily influenced by the mass media. The pervasiveness of these collection of ideas can be seen all around as it permeates the everyday lives of the society. It has brought with it a certain superficiality, consumerism and sensationalism.
This can be seen in that decadent show that seems to have captured the imagination of not just the young but also the elderly. The exhibition of licentiousness going on in that house of shame called Big Brother Africa is more than a source of concern, it is the repudiation of morality and sanity in the name of modernity and it is being thumbed in our noses by Multichoice; an agency of western imperialism.
Reality television shows present unscripted situations, peopled by unprofessional actors, depending on the genre. But what does the Big brother genre of reality television want to impart to Africans?
The answer is perversion. The show has unleashed perversion at a level that will be very difficult to erase. It is damaging the scant morality we still subscribe to in a terribly debased world.
Big Brother was popularized by George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. But this is not the Big Brother he was talking about when he wrote that book. The term “Big Brother” was the lexicon for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.
Every year, Multi Choice unleashes this vile content on the continent into millions of homes. But it must be seen for what it is; a slow destruction of societal values.
Reality television shows have a powerful hypnotic effect on viewers. But while reality television may seem like a harmless form of entertainment on the surface, the damage being done is so subtle but yet very powerful.
Why on earth will people be enticed to watch lewdness in the guise of education? What is the difference between this show and p0rnography? The vilest and the vainest are put on display in the guise of promoting Africa.
Big brother Africa is a glaring example of the extent of depravity being pushed to African societies. The question to be asked is if it is part of a western agenda or a South African plan to destroy the fabric of African societies because it goes against all the grain of Africanness. With the west aggressively pushing the homosexual agenda across the world, we might soon have a reality show of homosexuals and lesbians under the guise of equality.
Its high time we repudiate non value television shows in all its forms; we cant ruin the future of our youths and the very young with this Big Brother nonsense.
Our political, economic , cultural and social structures are going bankrupt and the combined effects is creating a society going out of balance, exemplified by the bling-bling capitalism-materialism, and we stare a global debt holocaust, we witness structured abject poverty for the masses and extreme wealth for the elite.
Decency and moral high standards have been thrown to the pigs. With this new and sustained assault, we need serious societal introspection by asking; do we really need another reality TV show or perhaps it’s time for a reality check? There is a need to look at ourselves and ask if we will succeed or fail at this rate. As Socrates succinctly puts it, “The unexamined life is not worth living”.
The display of wanton intimate excesses, destruction of family values, with p0rnography and homosexuality becoming the hallmarks of modern moral decadence, which as history supposedly shows, will not only lead to the decline but the destruction of our society, has to stop!
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