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Essay Instructions: Complete this essay assignment . . . I will also email the hard copy of this assignment:

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Writing Assignment: In response to the Reading Assignment, compose an essay using Microsoft Word on your own computer. Include your full name and UC ID# at the top of your paper. There are three required sections and each should be labeled:
1. Summary: Write a one paragraph summary of the passage. A summary describes the main points of a text but uses fewer words. A summary does not contain your opinion.
2. Essay: Write a multi?paragraph essay responding to the arguments in the assigned passage; agree, disagree, or modify the author?s arguments. Use examples from the passage and your own experiences to develop and support your points, ideas, and/or opinions. You should spend most of your time on this portion of the English Placement essay.
3. Reflection: Reread your essay. Write a paragraph in which you explain what you did well in your essay and what you think are your weaknesses.
Your writing will be evaluated based on your ability to:
1. Understand the reading and present the main ideas in the summary.
2. Express your ideas clearly in the summary, in the essay, and in the reflection.
3. Support your ideas in the essay with specific examples and details.
4. Use Standard English. Reading Assignment: ?Reality TV Fosters Sadism? by Michael Good speed Originally published on www.rense.com. 15 April 2004. "The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it."? Frank Herbert, author of the Dune chronicles Bestselling horror author Stephen King is loathe to grant interviews. As he has written in countless Forwards of his popular novels, journalists "who should really know better" never fail to ask the most asinine question of all: "Where do you get your ideas?" The question implies that a writer can make withdrawals from the magical "idea bank" when the natural well spring of his imagination runs dry. Actually, that may not be far from the truth. As King himself wrote,"...great ideas are not so much invented as discovered." I've often wondered about the role of
Page 2 of 7 the collective unconscious in the creative process. Perhaps this could account for the apparently unintentional ability of some fiction writers to predict the future. The last few years must have King feeling like Nostradamus. In the late 60's, while King was still in high school, he wrote the shocking novella Rage, a story whose protagonist is a psychotic young man who takes his father's gun to school and murders his teachers and principal. After the string of school shootings in the 90's (including two instances when the killers cited King's book as inspiration), King voluntarily took Rage out of distribution. On the issue of media influence on youth violence, King once said, "Marilyn Manson and Metallica never caused anyone to kill...but these things act as accelerants." But other early writings of King (Bachman) have proved even more prescient. Two Bachman novellas, The Long Walk and The Running Man, tell stories of a bleak and once unthinkable future that is unquestionably coming to fruition. In the alternative universe of The Long Walk, the USA's most celebrated national sport/cultural event/pastime is a grisly endurance event where the participants compete for their very lives. Young men VOLUNTARILY sign on for The Long Walk, a race to the death where 100 teenagers begin walking and do not stop until they get their respective "tickets." Getting a "ticket" results from dropping below the minimum walking speed of four MPH a total of four times in less than one hour. But a "ticket" is not so much a "ticket" as a bullet to the brain. The race continues until one boy is left walking. This lucky young chap will receive a mysterious reward known only as The Prize. The boys who choose to compete in the Long Walk are celebrated as true "patriots." They are "honored" to be gunned down by rifle?toting Army automatons in front of a national TV audience. The boys cry, plead, clutch cramped legs, and beg for mercy from the placid soldiers...all of whom carry out their "orders" with stoic efficiency. Ratings for The Long Walk, and the resulting advertising revenue, are truly astronomical. The Running Man tells an equally cruel, though slightly less stomach churning, tale. Its protagonist is Benjamin Richards, an out of work breadwinner for a family of two, unemployed in a barren economy and forced to risk his life on a macabre game show called The Running Man. Richards' task is to elude capture for 30 days
Page 3 of 7 from law enforcement and a group of trackers called The Hunters. Citizens are told that Richards is a criminal, and will receive cash rewards as "patriots" if they turn him in. If Richards remains free for 30 days, his prize is a billion dollars. If he gets caught, he gets executed in the most violent manner imaginable on national television. The world of the Running Man is worse than an Orwellian nightmare. Huge chemical companies (including the aptly named Raygon Chemical) have poisoned the atmosphere so severely that young children are dying of lung cancer. Only the wealthy can afford to breathe healthy air, provided by "nose filters" which run at several thousand dollars a pop (the secret is, nose filters can be made by anyone for a few dollars of cheap material.) The ending of the Running Man features a chilling synchronism. Richards faces a choice of either joining the evil Network which poisons the air and broadcasts the Running Man...or he can die and take down as many "bad guys" as possible. He hijacks a plane and flies it into the Network's corporate headquarters, the tallest tower in downtown New York. (By the way, if you think I'm implying that the victims of 9/11 were "bad guys," or that the terrorists were "heroes," THINK AGAIN! As recently as 10 years ago, King's scenarios, while undeniably chilling, seemed little more than unmitigated fantasy. Could anyone imagine a world where Americans would stand by and cheer while human beings were slaughtered for sheer entertainment? A recent trend in American media proves that King's speculation was not only plausible, but shockingly fortuitous. In 2004, the highest rated network television shows are so?called REALITY programs. This trend began in the late 90's, when CBS brought us the immensely popular Survivor series. This show features very attractive people walking around scantily clad on a desert island, nearly starving to death, battling for food and other goodies in inane "competitions" such as eating giant worms and walking on hot coals, and generally conniving, plotting, and scamming one another for the best chance to stay on the show and win a million bucks. Indeed, the "winner" of Survivor has often been the biggest jerk who was most adept at forming sinister plots.
Page 4 of 7 Survivor creator Mark Burnett has come under scathing criticism for his latest proposed "reality" program. Burnett has pitched to CBS a show called Recovery, which will feature real? life "investigations" and man?hunts into active missing children cases. The people conducting the "hunts" will not be professional law enforcement, but independent bounty hunters and private investigators. CBS' preliminary publicity material describes the show as taking "viewers along on an emotional and life?changing ride, from the abduction to the search in all its intensity to the reunion of child and parents." Child advocacy groups are generally appalled by the concept. "The idea for Mark Burnett's new reality show of snatching children sickens me," said Lindsey Brooks, investigating manager for Child Quest International in Campbell, Calif. "These children he plans to recover have already been extremely emotionally damaged by being abducted. Now Burnett wants to exploit them by being on a TV show." At least Recovery would have the redeeming value of attempting to save real children. Other "reality" shows have plumbed the depths of mankind's potential for sadism and cruelty. The "entertainment" of these shows is provided by the physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish of its participants, many of whom are 100% non?consenting. The highest rated television show in the USA is American Idol, a "talent" competition for aspiring young dancers and singers. The real "entertainment" of the show is provided by judge Simon Cowell, who verbally disembowels the show's participants with allegedly "humorous" insults. Heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne had this to stay about the viciously acerbic Cowell: "I'd like to see that f*cking guy have a go at it, see how it feels." Other FOX reality shows have not only pushed but torn through the envelope of bad taste. JoeMillionaire featured vapid young women competing to "win" a million dollars by being chosenas the bride of a super rich guy. The joke was, he was completely broke! Another FOX show, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, featured an even more sadistic premise. A beautiful young woman is told she can split a million bucks with a fat, repulsive man if they both convince their families they are engaged to be married. The joke is, the guy is an actor, so the real object of ridicule is the greedy, blushing bride. The young woman may be held accountable for her own vacuity, but the woman's FAMILY were unwitting and non?consenting victims. The show's "entertainment" was the tearful, horrified, grief?stricken reactions of her siblings and parents to the "fat, obnoxious fiance." MBFOF's crescendo, a
Page 5 of 7 desperate confession by the make?believe couple, was one of the most discomfiting displays in the history of television. The young woman blubbered her apologies to her shell?shocked family, begging their forgiveness for the despicable sham. FOX's capacity for repugnant exploitation is apparently without limit. The latest FOX reality show, called The Swan, offers free plastic surgery to "homely" women in an attempt to make them "beautiful." The "most beautiful" of the mutilated women will compete in a beauty pageant in the show's climax. But as we hear in the trailer for this FOX gem, "...not everyone will be good enough to make the cut." But even more disturbingly, some new reality shows not only push and cross the bounds of good taste, but actually physically endanger their unwitting, non?consenting "participants." On the Sci?Fi channel's Scare Tactics, individuals are set up by their "friends" for extraordinarily ghoulish and realistic pranks. The majority of these victims are actually led to believe their lives are in danger. In one episode, a group of friends in a car pick up a mysterious hitchhiker, only to see him turn violent and attack the driver with a knife. Not surprisingly, the "mark" in the back seat, believing his friend is being murdered, pummels the poor actor with a knife into submission. Another Scare Tactic prank went even more terribly wrong, and has resulted in litigation. A Los Angeles woman named Kara Blanc sued the cable channel for "severe emotional damage and injuries incurred as a result," after a prank in which Blanc ran naked through a desert canyon, believing she was being chased by aliens who had murdered her friends. Season 3 of Scare Tactics has featured the most vicious pranks to date. In Episode 2, a group of young men out for a joy ride get pulled over by the "cops." The young "mark" witnesses one of his friends (an accomplice) flee from the "police," only to be shot in the back by a remorseless officer. The "mark" says tearfully to the cop, "I can't believe you just shot that kid!" The officer then directs the young man to "turn his back," to which the boy replies, "You're gonna shoot me, aren't you?" The officer then trains his gun directly on the boy and says, "I'm gonna do what I have to do." But NEVER FEAR, young man! Seconds later, he was given the delightful news, "You're on SCARE TACTICS!" Har?de?har?har, indeed.... Predictably, some moronic and highly impressionable people have tried to imitate the antics seen on Scare Tactics in real life. In Ohio in October of 2003, a young woman set up her "best friend" to be kidnapped by two
Page 6 of 7 men and dragged into a field at gunpoint. The men proceeded to "murder" their female accomplice, then held a gun to the victim's head...and began counting down. After reaching "one," they yelled out, "Happy Halloween! You're on Scare Tactics!" Not surprisingly, neither the victim nor Ohio authorities were amused by this horrific prank, and the perpetrators, if convicted, will face one to five years behind bars. It is understandable why so many networks are seeking to profit from the hugely popular reality craze. With no actors, directors, or writers to pay, these shows have ridiculously low production costs, almost always turning an enormous profit. Reality shows are a source of frequent "water cooler discussions," and are even the subject of "reports" on many network news casts. Even if you don't watch these shows, you can keep abrest of "story" developments by tuning in to Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather on a nightly basis. If "reality" programs are a source of "entertainment" for you and your family, you must understand one thing: taking pleasure in the suffering of others is a form of MENTAL ILLNESS called SADISM. Watch these shows if you like, but as you guffaw at the sight of innocent, unwilling, non?consenting humans suffering enormous mental and physical anguish, take a moment to look in the mirror, and ask yourself if you like what you see. Recent Hollywood films Gladiator and The Passion of the Christ have shed light on the extraordinary cruelty of the Roman Empire. Public torture, execution, and sacrifice of human beings was the preferred form of entertainment for the Romans. Many have compared current trends in American culture to the last days just before Rome fell. Some even say that no culture in the history of the world has ever recovered from the depth of decay we are currently experiencing in American society. Saturday, April 17th (2004), marks the beginning of National Turn Your TV Off Week in my hometown of Portland, OR. Far be it from me to tell anyone how to spend their free time, but might suggest that you use this week as an opportunity to TUNE OFF your TV, and TUNE IN to the greatest reality show of all, called REAL LIFE. Page 7 of 7
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