[Days Until Vegas: 6]

Or, more accurately, can MTV save your mortal soul? I think not.

I was getting ready to watch The Osbournes last night and flipped on MTV a little early while waiting for it to come on and I was greeted with potentially the most hideous thing I’ve ever witnessed. Ever.

For there, glaring at me through my television screen, were the most pathetically shallow individuals ever conceived, putting on a show of emotion for the September 11 attacks.

The show was MTV’s The Real World, which, as most folks who know me know, I think is one of the lamest shows ever. Yeah, I’ve watched my share of it in late night “nothing’s on TV” times, but watching The Real World any more is like watching an extended Jerry Springer episode - you never think it can get any more convoluted or lame, but then, somehow, it does. The lesbian lover shows up; the Nazi boyfriend lights someone on fire; etc., etc.

Anyway, back to the point: For half an hour I watched a group of people presumably my age cry their hearts out, kiss each other, pray, and sing in mourning for the Sept. 11 incident. This, in and of itself, is not a problem. But the manner in which this mourning occurred felt, to me, to be the most inauthentic display of feeling witnessed on national television.

The amount of legitimate feeling there equated to a person you’ve never met coming up to you and kissing you on both cheeks. Yeah, you just got kissed, but did it mean anything? Nope. The way these people so… deliberately… feel their emotions… it’s almost frustrating. It was like watching someone tell them “Something terrible just happened. The country is in disarray. You should now feel bad,” and they then feel what they’re told.

What I’m even more worried about is that this might be actually how people are now. Maybe I’m an exception to the norm (which wouldn’t be the first time). Maybe I’m just inarticulate and my feelings overpower me. But when I feel grief, I can’t just sit there and say, “Well, I’m feeling grief right now, as evidenced by the tears you see rolling down my face.” It’s not a scientific, and rarely an easily communicatable, thing. The display I witnessed was… so robotic.

Is that how people are anymore? If so, that’d explain a lot about the world and why things that happen in the world get the reaction they do. I really hope folks aren’t as shallow as all that.

Or maybe it was just the way the show was cut together. Here’s hoping.

On another note…

The Osbournes was a great episode. “Dinner With Ozzy.” They interviewed him and showed highlights from the season. It was too funny, and it sort of put all the antics into perspective. As Ozzy says, “[he] doesn’t think the way [they] live is abnormal… that’s how [he’s] always lived.”

Went to lunch today and saw at the local KB Toy outlet that they had giant ReBoot figures for $5 each. Had to get the two they had left. More crap to cram into the apartment.