I watched the final episode of the latest Survivor last night and it sort of got me thinking.  The premise of the game was the same as it has been for years, but this season seemed to be a little different.  I’m not sure if the lying was at an all-time high or if the lying was just different.

Since Richard Hatch won the first Survivor, the game has always been about making alliances and working people to get to the top.  If you’ve ever watched you know they edit this show to make it seem like someone will get blindsided only to see the obvious happen in the end.  This season there was actually quite a few surprises and the game changed up to the end.  How does the success in this game compare to success in real life?  I mean, is Survivor an abbreviated look at how things really are?

Do good guys really finish last while those who will do anything, to include lying their pants off, make it to the top?

I work in an industry that you would think – you would really hope – has honesty at the forefront.  Unfortunately, honesty in my occupation will only take you so far.  After getting to a certain point there seems to be an equal amount of honest people and sketchy characters that keep on rising.

If we took an honest look at our society, how hard to you think it is for a truly honest person to succeed?  Of course we could say there are all kinds of honest people who have made it, but what about the dishonest people who have made it and the people who are in the process “by any means necessary?”

Law professor Tamar Frankel says the following:

“Americans must demand of their leaders, of themselves, and of one another more honesty and trust and less cynicism — a Utopian ideal, but a necessary cultural aspiration.”

Don’t you think this is true of not only Americans but the world as a whole?

Where can you find the following:

• One Asian guy
• One Old guy
• One black woman
• One, two, or three women who some would consider “hot”
• Possibly and probably one homosexual person
• One black guy
• At least one set of fake breasts
• One old woman

You can find all of that in Gabon.  You may be wondering where Gabon is right? I looked it up on Wikipedia and got the following:

Gabon (pronounced /g??b?n/ or /ga?bõ/ in French) is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo and the Gulf of Guinea. The capital and largest city is Libreville. Since its independence from France on August 17, 1960, the Republic has been ruled by two presidents. In the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi party system and a new democratic constitutionnatural resources, and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in the region, with the highest HDI in Sub-Saharan Africa. that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions. A small population (less than two million), abundant natural resources, and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in the region, with the highest HDI in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Besides all that, Gabon is where you will find the latest cast of Survivor.  Yes, it has lost some of its luster over the years due, in my opinion, to how predictable it is.  Go to any town/city in the US and randomly pick 18 people.  Are they really going to fit that list above?  We understand reality TV (RTV so I don’t have to keep typing it) wants to hit several demographics, but how about just randomly picking some people who will make for an interesting show?

Survivor is probably the third big RTV show, assuming you think Who Wants To Be a Millionaire Qualifies after the Real World.  What is the state of RTV?  Are we ready to move away from this genre?  If we did, what would be left on TV?

More Survivor stuff to come.