I was watching the apprentice today and realized that this show represents American values at its utmost. Take 12 people and put them in a room together, and watch them devour each other like savages. And we look up to these people like they have accomplished something, I recall hearing one of the women put one of her own team members down by claiming: “I am a multimillionaire what are you?” I guess that is what we have come too. These shows captivate our attention. Are we inspired by the man eat man nature of these people? Are these the people we feel are truly successful? Is it not more honorable to work together on a team and take pride in your work, not to work half ass with the hope of finding a scapegoat on to which you can blame your own miserable performance? I have watched every season of this show, it dawned on me today that in many ways that is very sad. But I have to say that it seems often times the Donald will keep those that work hard and do not play the blame game or give into petty arguments, he kept Rebecca to the very end last season because I feel he truly believed she had integrity, she was willing to stand by her friend even if that meant going down in the process. Is this not the kind of person you want working for you. An unsuccessful person would not choose this candidate for fear that they would eventually be outshined, I have to give the Donald some credit here. Which brings me to my point of this whole essay? We as Americans in many ways have become these many miserable apprentice contestants that make it on this show each season. In this war on terror we have been willing to sacrifice the lives of countless human beings for a gain in national security……… we have gone from a 4 to a 6 on the security scale or maybe vice versa……….. We are willing to sit back and do nothing as our project manager screws things up. And unlike the apprentice this has resulted in costs that are far more saddening and grotesque. We are not contestants on a 15 week job interview to make it in the realms of the Trump organization. I like to feel our job interview is much more important. Each day we our given a new task, and each day we are all asked to step up to the plate and be project managers. As we continue to occupy our time throwing blame at our government representatives, turning our face to the countless atrocities that take place every day under our team name, placing value on plasma TV’s and accruing credit card debt to attain possessions, eagerly filling our thirst for oil!! We assume the very role that we love to hate as we are glued to our TV sets every Monday night. I believe I am one of thee contestants. And as Tarak, so eagerly pointed out this week, “When you go into that board room nobody is your friend.” I am afraid at the end of my 15 weeks when I have to look my big boss in the sky in the eye, he might just look at me from across that large glossy brown table and say Stephen …………………… YOU’RE FIRED!!!!
I loved it. I’ve been waiting for you to wax philosophical. You do it so well. Great analogy. What I get out of watching The Apprentice is that these 16 or so are picked out of a million applicants and if this is the best of the million, I’m a little concerned. We all know it can be “dog eat dog” out there, but these people are often incompetent and unable to organize or work with people. They often lack organizational skills.
I’ve been impressed with Trumps daughter, Ivanka. She appears capable unlike many of the contestants, but I wonder what she’d be like if she had to fight for a job. She easily sits back and is a capable evaluator, but what if she was in the mix? It would be interesting to see. It will never happen of course, because for some, they never have to go through a job interview.
I imagine that if Bush was on The Apprentice, he’d be one of the first washed out. It’s terrible to think about, but as incompetent as many of the apprentices are, some are more competent than the President.