Re: The end of our dignity and heritage?, By Zuzana Habšudová, September 26 - October 2, 2005
The recent development of the reality TV show format in Slovakia will not spell the end of the country's dignity and culture but merely the beginning of a larger and longer term project to socially re-engineer Slovak society on the basis of the neo-liberal consumerist model.
For the media cult of celebrity and the prostitution of ones private life for public consumption can only become a central part of an economy that has reached an excessive level of material satiety.
Slovakia has not reached this point yet. The UK is such an entertainment economy, whilst Slovakia still seeks to base its development at least partly on the process of actually producing commodities that are useful in some practical sense.
So shows like Big Brother only come to reflect the corrosion of social values when they are no longer of any use/value to the development of an economy based on the pure consumption, easy credit, and the kind of debt-fuelled "feelgood" faddism promoted by the government in Britain. Yet the new cynical and sinister media and financial class in Slovakia cannot be unaware that reality TV and cheap entertainment can dampen discontent and prevent the masses from thinking too much.
Bratislava, Slovakia
3. Oct 2005 at 0:00
