Going to Extremes

In today's blog I want to ruminate about the burgeoning phenomena of people going to extremes. What brought this to mind was having recently been exposed to television programming. Normally, this is not something I spend time on. It is, however, a major part of the lives of vast numbers of individuals. What affect this is having on the psyches of individuals is only beginning to become evident.

We have, sadly, come to expect people, and communities, doing their best to achieve the questionable fame of having been selected for the Guinness Book of World Records, by growing the largest pumpkin ever, or creating the biggest something-or-other, etc., etc. Also, being exposed to the dreadful sight of individuals consuming gross amounts of something or other. We now have individuals participating in what are called, "Extreme Sports," and Web Sites devoted to the practice of self-starvation, and children cutting themselves.

This line of ruminating was brought on by watching cooking shows. "Cooking shows?" you ask. When this phenomenon has corrupted even cooking shows, it is an indication of how far our sense of proportion has been corrupted. (As I was a captive audience, I really had no say in the matter; if I had, the TV would have been turned off.)

There were two such examples, which I witnessed, those being, creating enormous servings of food which individuals were to try their best to consume. One was a seven pound enchilada(?), (actually weighing in at nine pounds!), and a Breakfast created on a pancake the size of a large pizza, (it was turned using a pizza shovel) on which was piled large amounts of sausage, bacon, eggs and toast. These concoctions were served up to, as I recall, eight individuals, each with their own, whole, individual creation. Now, just one of these creations would have been more than ample for the whole group.

In another instance of such TV captivity, it was the Weather Channel; sitting and watching it all day long! Fortunately for me, it was one of our recent spates of bad weather. (You will have probably noticed that even Mother Nature has now gone into extremism as a form of expression.) What is being shown to audiences to keep them tuned in, when the weather is less, "interesting" are films of individuals who are, "weather chasers"; these people, as you probably know, devote themselves to the avocation of chasing and, if possible, catching on film such dangerous weather as Tornados in process.

In further dissecting the phenomena, I find some of them, such as, "Extreme Sports," have a common denominator with the various current forms of visual "entertainment," which is, they create adrenaline in the participants' bodies. Adrenaline is addictive; if one is not able to get it from what is watched, the addicted involve themselves in dangerous activities which bring about the Adrenaline charge.

Another developmental factor may well have been the, seemingly innocuous, Guinness Book of World Records, encouraging the striving to be in the book--striving for notoriety--which, also, has a common denominator with copy-cat, antisocial crimes. This can also be linked to the current fascination with, so-called, "famous" people--wanting to have one's own, "15 minutes of fame."

How this development is connected to the playing/watching of violent Video Games, as well as, current "entertainment" forms can only be speculated upon, as social critics are not allowed to suggest that there is a direct correlation between what we feed ourselves, in the way of entertainment, and the resultant behavior of many of the younger generations, as well as some of the more mature members.

So, while the current social extremism seems to be the result of a web of related recent social factors, it seems clear, however, that this phenomena has, "gone viral"!

On this disturbing note, I end today's blog.

Shirley Gallup