The ordinary becomes the hero

Some years ago there was a British game show on television called The Crystal Maze. It was hosted by a man in a wizard’s cape and had as participants a group of ordinary teenagers who had to go through all sorts of tests and some fairly hair raising adventures to win a prize. Though the show had all the high tech gimmickry of modern television, it still retained a slight fairy tale feel about it. The same fairy tale feel that used to churn the wheels of the comic book (Phantom, Superman, Batman, Tarzan) and the early video games trade: the idea of the good banding together to vanquish evil; the slaying of dragons and releasing of innocents, the overcoming of insurmountable obstacles, in short — heroism.

I thought of the genre with some wonderment while reading the hype generated by television’s latest event: the telecasting of the reality game show that is said to have shocked America, Temptation Island. Readers are probably familiar by now with the format of the show that tests the fidelity levels of four couples by throwing an army of seductive singles at them on a beautiful Pacific island. Much has been said about the sensational nature of the show’s content, the fillip it may give to the trend of infidelity and so on. What strikes me, however, is the low level of achievement demanded of the contestants.

What is it that is asked of them? It is not to battle for a higher cause. It is not to surmount terrifying odds or even to rush to the aid of the suffering. There is no selflessness, no nobility and certainly no skill involved in this exercise at all. The only challenge before couples purportedly in love is that on an island rife with cameras they resist the temptations posed by beautiful strangers. A difficult proposition, some would maintain. Perhaps, but is it heroism?

Is it heroism either to win huge sums of money in a quiz show that poses notoriously simple questions with multiple options? Is it heroism to go through various rounds of a contest that involves showing off your physical, emotional and intellectual assets — all in the hope of marrying a perfect stranger whose only qualification is that he is supposed to be a millionaire? Is it heroism to find ways of ‘surviving’ on a deserted island, a project that includes bitching against and conspiring to throw your co-residents out. The obvious answer would be ‘no’. Yet, a slew of recent game/reality shows: Temptation Island, Kaun Banega Crorepati and its videshi counterpart, Survivor, How To Marry A Millionaire etc. focus on these same very unheroic qualities of fickleness, avariciousness and selfishness. Why is this happening? One possibility is the inexorable move towards greater democracy in every aspect of life. The emergence of the anti-hero and also the ordinary man as the hero. The revelation of ourselves as human and not God-like. If we are willing to see ourselves as weak and fallible then heroism too, it would seem, be necessarily different, possibly a less challenging proposition. On the other hand, the acknowledgment of human weakness, the frailty of mankind and so on should surely have an elevating impact. As the writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, writing in the Washington Post Book World points out “Through the very real failings of human characters — people not so very different from us — we learn compassion. We learn to question, to examine our own lives and make them better.”

This is certainly not the effect one can connect with the recent trend in game/reality shows. In fact, what the trend does emphatically is to present human weaknesses not as facts to be acknowledged and empathised with but as qualities to be vividly flaunted, celebrated and, of course, rewarded. It is the negative in human nature that the shows project and indeed encourage. It is a perfect reversal of the past with what was once considered bad now being touted as admirable. And it has a lot perhaps to do with a society conditioned by advertising. The fact that ideas such as the one that claims it is good to have more than one’s fill, that it is right to covet a neighbour’s car or buy a TV set to make him envious have all become an unquestioned part of our environment. How far can the trend subvert our values and beliefs? The potential seems limitless. On the other hand, Banerjee Divakaruni offers a ray of hope when she says “We’re starved for inspiration, for role models. There’s something in us that longs to admire, to marvel at, to receive confirmation that the human spirit is, indeed, amazing, enduring, powerful — and good.”

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