Who wants to get some perspective?

by MATTHEW COLGLAZIER
University Wire

FORT WORTH, Texas - Lately, Americans have witnessed the re-emergence of game shows on prime time television. Ushered in by the success of Regis Philbin's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", other quiz shows have popped up, like Fox's "Greed" and, most recently, the deplorable, "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire". In an ironic twist, NBC brought back the quiz show "21", which went off the air in the 1950s following a question-doctoring scandal, effectively ending the prime time showing of game shows.

We cheer on these contestants weekly, and yet we are not asking the question: Why are we cheering such shows that feed the American public's fascination with what has variously been called the "American Dream" or, more specifically, the "self-made man?" We watch these shows because we love cheering on our fellow citizens. These are regular people - we can only guess - who have, through some luck and minimal knowledge, been given the chance to win a new life.

But is winning a new life something to be cheered on? After all, isn't the American dream built upon earning a life? I'm not sure the networks fully understand the message they are propagating.

It's a message that money can buy happiness. That may or may not be true, but it's also a message that hard work, being a productive citizen, voting and earning an honest living are not enough. Here is where we run into problems.

Cheering for fellow citizens, our American brothers and sisters, is fine. It's keeping the notion of community alive in America. But why can't we cheer on more noble causes? Why must the American people watch a game show to find community? Why must our dreams be based around greed?

These are the questions we should be asking every time we cheer for these contestants. After winning a million dollars, however, these people are still basically like you and me: fairly boring. Not that the typical American life is boring in itself, but it shouldn't warrant any kind of fame.

It's as if answering a series of rather elementary questions is considered an achievement. It worries me when even in my own classes, people will refer to things such as "lifelines," when stumped on a question, as if knowledge in higher education could be reduced to such elementary inquiries.

Perhaps we are simply repeating the past. After all, the economy was booming in the '50s, and so Americans had time to stuff themselves with get-rich-quick fantasies, as if there were enough wealth to make everyone rich. However, we can't forget about the families on welfare who tune in every night and watch people, much like themselves, earn millions of dollars in a matter of minutes. How must this make them feel about Americans' priorities? Instead of using extra wealth to start social programs, we are using it to amuse ourselves and make more money for the media, which help propagate such messages.

The message lies within the show, but it's masked by the smiling faces, the high-dollar prizes and the stories of families who were able to start a new life thanks to good old Regis. We are too well-equipped for social change to waste it on advertising profits and false idols. For Americans, the greatest of these idols is money. As regular citizens, we must make it a point to find a real American Dream.