Down with the Crazies

So I'm watching and following American Idol very very closely this season..

Yesterday was Tony Bennett night, and as usual the worst performance was by Sanjaya Malakar.

If you've been even slightly awake during the last month, you've definitely heard of the 17 year old, half-Indian half-American, sexually-dubious creature who cannot sing, knows it, yet still continues to remain on the show for inexplicable reasons that may include the entire South Asian population of the US voting for him out of some twisted solidarity (yes, lets endorse him and prove South Asians can't sing) and little girls between the ages of 9 and 12 who, frankly, will always vote for the youngest contestant because he's closest to them in age and they can have gooey dreams about him.

Each week, I wait with bated breath to see if America will have come to its senses and knocked this poor excuse for a singer off the show, but alas it seems like people care less about the talent and more about the freakshow personality that he's become. He seems to enjoy his new found celebrity, trying out bizarre hairstyles each week, arguing with the judges like a 5-year old and continuing to look shocked each time he is not eliminated.

Howard Stern and VoteForTheWorst.com aren't helping either, as they goad their followers to vote for.. well.. the worst. The judges, including acerbic Simon Cowell, have resigned themselves to laughing uncomfortably at the end of his performances and avoiding all comments about his vocals because it's just too shockingly bad to bear and they're probably kicking themselves about why on earth they let him on stage in the first place.

So, back to last night. After watching all the swing-themed performances, of which Sanjaya was predictably the worst, I found myself saying: "It's definitely going to be Phil Stacey who gets knocked out next".

And then I paused and realized the sad, sad situation that we all end up in as a result of a broken system. We become so apathetic and disillusioned by the logic-defying trend, that we don't even consider the fact sanity could prevail and Sanjaya could be knocked out. We're so convinced of the stupidity of the nation that we've chosen to even stop expecting rationality to kick in.

And this is just 4 weeks on a reality TV show. No wonder countries and whole populations can't pull themselves out of deadly ruts of terror and depression and bad leadership. We've just become used to settling for less.

Anyhoo - assuming Sanjaya stays, I think that beginning next week I'm actually going to pick up the phone and call in to vote. Sitting around on my butt expecting America to wake up clearly hasn't worked, so I'm going to use my democratic right to, if anything, give one less vote to Sanjaya. 'Cos if I don't speak up, I'm part of the problem, right?