20/20 Vision In A Blind, Blind World

By Steven Snyder

Some say there’s no accounting for taste. For those of us cursed with good taste, a better saying may be there’s no accounting for tastelessness.

This rant is for everyone who has awoken from their consumerist coma.

I was in a movie theater, a screening of non-paying patrons eager to succumb to the wretched bundle of sounds and pictures known as “Torque.” But my surprise did not arise from the disastrous “film” itself, but rather from the incredulity of an audience witnessing me leave thirty minutes in.

“ Where are you going!” one incensed viewer shouted, shocked anyone would avoid anything free, regardless of its stupidity. “Anywhere but here” I shot back.

Finally, my rebellion had begun.

Then there’s that day at work two months back, when I found myself at lunch with six grown adults desperate to hear my thoughts on the finale of “The Bachelor.”

I quit three weeks later.

The crowning moment came just yesterday, when Nickelback graced my radio. This isn’t all that bad, I thought. And looking into the rear-view mirror, I noticed my head nodding. Yes, I was now even nodding along to Nickelback.

I wondered, is this what my life has come to? Lowering my standards to fit in? Desperate to enjoy anything and everything forced down my throat?

Does anyone else feel this - the pain of being conscious of the shallowness consuming the world? I earnestly wish I could shut my brain off, that I could care about bachelors and the formulaic radio play list. But I can’t.

So I stay quiet, adopting a forced smile when others approach me about such meaningless dribble, waiting for their tastes to improve or for enough of my brain cells to die so I can join them.

Sadly, we all know which will come first.

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