Reading an article published today in the New York Times I started feeling sick in the first sentences. The title of the article is “MTV's 'Super Sweet 16' Gives a Sour Pleasure†and the reality show it talks about is not unbelievable but rather is just in real bad taste.
After having seen so many pictures of the so far hidden poverty in New Orleans and comparing it to this show which shows rich kids spending ridiculous amounts of money on a birthday party it makes you feel sick.
It seems pretty unreal when you think that there are discrete lobby companies that do everything they can to dissuade people from talking about the massive difference there is between the absurdly rich and the underlying deep poverty in the US.
What could be more absurd, well supposedly the show is pretty successful !
The article refers to this article in TIME magazine where Cox says :
What used to mark the end of childhood now seems only an excuse to prolong the whiny, self-centered greediness that gives infantile a bad name.
From the Hughes film “Sixteen Candles†which had it's ups and downs but was enjoyable, we now get a depressing painting of the US in sixteen shades of greed from MTV !