In the 1950's, when television was in its infancy, there were few game shows featured, one that I recall was 'Take Your Pick' with Michael Miles. The contestants were asked three simple questions, such as 'name the ship featured in the film Mutiny on The Bounty' and if they got these correct then selected a key to a box that contained details of a prize, or a booby-prize such as a smoked-kipper. This show had relatively small prizes and was seen as innocent fun. No one was abused and even those that got their questions wrong were guided politely by the gentle tones of Mr Miles. How times change.

MICHAEL MILES

There are today a number of question and answer game shows on television that feature contestants competing against each other for serious prize money. These may seem, at first glance, to be harmless fun. However there is one game show that has really extended the boundaries of acceptable avarice, that show is 'The Weakest Link'. This programme features a group of individuals answering general knowledge questions but adds the twist that they must select one of their group to be publicly dismissed and humiliated by the acerbic Anne Robinson. 'You are The Weakest Link: Goodbye' being her catch-phrase. The vitriolic, Gestapo style of this hatchet faced female seems to have captured the public's imagination. She uses terms that are degrading and insulting encouraging the contestants to 'dump the dunce….drop the deadbeat…..flush out the fool' etc. In the name of entertainment people are being abused in public, rather like a modern day stoning. However, the show is highly successful and set to be screened in the USA and around the world indicating that people must enjoy watching others suffer. I find that fact very sad.

The Sinister Anne Robinson

Anne Robinson is not alone in exploiting and degrading contestants in public. Chris Tarrent has his own unique way of unnerving those that sit opposite him playing 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' He smiles, like a Cobra with a rat in its sights, and says 'Is that your final answer?……You are sure?…….'Phone a friend?' etc. Then his eyes light with delight as the contestants clutch at the air seeking inspiration to answer such inane questions as 'Which pop group had a number one hit with 'She Loves You'. And the public viewing figures are in the millions. The show has been a massive hit all over the world proving that greed and suffering are very popular on this planet that we call the Earth.

The problem I perceive with game shows such as 'The Weakest Link' is that they encourage and reward avarice and selfishness. What kind of example are such shows setting for people to follow? The weak are publicly humiliated, the strong are seen to take the prize and the message is clear Be Cruel, Be Brutal, Be Ruthless and WIN. That is the ethos of the bully. Yet people are applauding this.
 
 

Game shows have existed throughout history and long before television was invented. In ancient Rome the games were staged in the Coliseum with the contestants fighting to the death as Gladiators, or being fed to the lions as the early Christians. And the Roman public applauded. The force behind these games was the Emperor who used them to placate the population. They were 'entertainment' but the real reason they existed was to give the people something to occupy their minds with. Karl Marx once referred to religion as 'the opium of the people' Historically public executions, whippings, stocks and the notorious Roman Games served the same purpose. Today these have been replaced by televised 21^st Century equivalents such as 'The Weakest Link' and the public applaud.

Dale Winton's Supermarket Sweep

The truth of the matter is that we are not here incarnate in physical bodies to waste our time watching others suffering. I also believe that we are debased by such things as 'Dale Winton's Supermarket Sweep'' in which people chase around a supermarket putting products ibto a metal trolley, and really we should know better. When we do watch these things we are permitting ourselves to be exploited and effectively controlled. The most famous book on this subject is the late Vance Packard's 'The Hidden Persuaders'. Packard pointed out that the messages that have the most effect upon our behaviour are the subliminal ones i.e. those that are hidden within other seemingly innocent things such as game shows. Think for a minute what the real message behind Winton's Trolley Dash is. The message is not too subtle either, it is that shopping is fun, so go out and fill your own trolley then you too will happy. Doubt not that the products featured in this and many other game shows are being advertised to you. The real name of the game is mind control and unless we think about such things we are being exploited.

Vance Packard's Book: THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS

It is the same with 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and all other such shows. The hidden messages corrupt and control us so effectively that most of us have not the faintest inkling that we are being duped. So what is the message behind 'The Weakest Link' ? This show teaches us that it is good to be unkind, cruel, heartless, greedy, selfish and uncharitable. The aim is to grab the cash and look smart and clever at the expense of others. That is the message that the public is receiving every time that programme is broadcast. It is a message that offends me, I do not think it right and proper to humiliate weaker individuals. Down that path lies the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. But the hidden persuaders tell us that avarice and unscrupulous behaviour is the only way. It is not a spiritual way, it is a purely material way and it is a negation of the purpose of our very existence.

Why you may ask would any authority seek to persuade the public that such patently discreditable behaviour is good? The answer is that whilst we are rolling around in the gutter competing with each other for the scraps our eyes are closed to the truth. The truth is that material goods are an illusion and are worthless in the eye of eternity. Imagine what would happen if we the public suddenly realised that we did not need or want a new car or a designer label pair of shoes. Imagine if just for one day we all stopped consuming the wasteful products that surround us in this materialistic society. If that happened the giant corporations would lose billions and their control over us, the consumers of their goods, would vanish. That is why we are being constantly bombarded by hidden messages that greed and selfishness is good. We are being controlled and the truth of our existence, spiritual enlightenment, is being obscured. Please think about these things, it is your life after all. In the meantime I am not yet The Weakest Link, Goodbye.

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