Keeping up with the Kardashians..straight into Hell
I know the subject matter for this blog may be too obvious to state, but the idea won’t let me go. And I know enough about myself to know that when a concept won’t let me go, I may as well succumb to it, no matter how obvious it may seem.
Besides, things that seem obvious still keep us in their grips. And just because we intellectually understand obvious ideas does not mean we can overcome them. Take for instance, obesity. It is obvious to all of us that the remedy to obesity is to live a healthy lifestyle that includes nutritious food, exercise, proper rest, and hydration (among many other psychological and spiritual aspects). There is pretty much no mystery there; it’s obvious! Yet, everyone in America is scratching their heads as to why we can’t seem to stop the obesity train from continuing to gain momentum. So maybe what is “obvious” about why our culture embraces people like the Kardashians as a worthwhile endeavor for our entertainment isn’t as obvious after all.
Less than one hundred years ago in this country, women struggled for the same basics rights as men. As we all know, it was not until 1920 that women could even vote. It took 50 more years for black people to begin to enjoy the same basic rights as white people. In fact, today is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Think of all of the hardships, violence, peaceful protests, and deaths to win basic human rights for the citizens of America.
What do we do with this freedom? We sit on our fat butts and stuff our faces with Cheese Puffs while watching the inane, banal, and absolutely ridiculous lives of the plastic and shallow Kardashians. Our ancestors fought hard for the freedoms we enjoy, and by God, we are going to use it… not for living our own lives and creating our own dreams, but for paying for channels that tune us into the lives of despicable families like the Kardashians.
You may find this hard to believe, but I seriously don’t mind the fact that they are completely self-absorbed, shallow, and obnoxiously spoiled. Really, that is fine by me. But what kind of person chooses to spend their precious time on this planet watching them whine and complain and fabricate marriages and conflicts? It’s like something out of a Dr. Seuss plot: millions of Americans under some sort of Kardashian spell, allowing the evil of their resulting complacency and trance state to nearly destroy our culture.
Wikipedia defines “famous for being famous” as “a pejorative [term] suggesting that the individual has no particular talents or abilities.” There it is: the crux of what irritates me. It’s not that they are without talents or abilities, it’s that they are admired the world over for it. There are so many thoughtful, brilliant people, contributing their talents to make the world a better place; yet the Kardashians win the popularity contest. It’s like the entire world is stuck in some sort of Junior High hellhole in which the pretty girls win, despite having no particular talents or abilities, and the smart girls are overlooked and dismissed. [Sidebar: as I write this part, I feel the familiar twang of doubt: “Am I writing something that has at least some objectivity, or is a memoir trying to leak out?” I think we can see the latter here.]
OK, humor me for just a moment and ask yourself this simple question: “If I keep up with the Kardashians, where will they lead me? Will my life be better? Will my values be improved or even supported? Will I be inspired to follow my dreams? Will the Kardashians lead me to self-knowledge or a sense of depth and purpose to my life?”
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not like I sit around reading academic papers and watching C-SPAN 24 hours a day. I love to be entertained and I enjoy many things that Hollywood puts out there for our entertainment. I just always hope that I don’t cross the line with my own desire to be famous for being famous. Isn’t that to what we all fall prey by posting the minutiae of our lives on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? We trick ourselves that people actually care that we are making fettucine for dinner or what our opinions are on [insert whatever topic onto which the media has decided to pounce this week]. It was on the tip of my tongue recently to tell my husband to check my Facebook page so that he could know what I was up to, since we were too busy that week to have a real conversation with each other. That is so completely lame, I caught myself before saying it out loud.
But you will notice that I am confessing it to you, dear anonymous reader of my blog on the internet.
My point is this: if you can watch such crap as the Kardashians and still live a fulfilled life, then great! But if you are putting off exercise, meditation, time with your children, or writing a book in order to keep up with them, then we have a problem. You have followed the Kardashians into hell, which I imagine as a bizarre, barren, Seussian landscape filled with plastic people who are like zombies, not living their own lives, and walking around feeling empty, holding People magazine in one hand and a remote control in the other.
