Three Requirements of Mankind

There are three things that matter to every person regardless of their age, colour, gender or personality. They may say that they don’t allow anything to influence them unconsciously or that they are strong willed and hard to hurt, but without these things they are inevitably a little vulnerable. The first of these things are money. You might say that money isn’t everything and that it doesn’t buy happiness which is the most important thing but, yes, I’m generalizing this, then how come those without money aren’t happy? The second of these things is love. This isn’t specifically directed at the love between a couple, but love as an emotion towards any human being. Between parents and their children, two best friends, really anyone who means something to you. Without this essential thing, your life is incomplete. But if it’s a comfort to anyone, there is no living being in this world who isn’t loved. Someone out there loves you. Always. And since there are a vast majority of people who believe in life after death, they believe even dead people are capable of loving. The third of these things are acceptance. Though everyone loves getting, there are very few who like giving. The same thing happens in the case of acceptance. Every single person wants to be accepted but when it comes to accepting people that’s just something that’s suddenly very hard to do. The standard excuse is that they’re too weird. But you know what? We are too. She might have an unusual fetish for something we don’t or he might have a different laugh but that’s who they are. You might say that accepting someone is easier said than done but that’s probably because that person doesn’t fit your impression of an acceptable person. And that’s really the challenge. Overcoming that biased image that our heads form for us, getting past that mind block and actually meaning the smile that is conventional to give to a person when you meet them for the first time or when you don’t know them too well. This is however, the primary state of acceptance. In the deeper levels, there are the people whose life goal is to be accepted. More often than not, there will be something big that either mentally or physically differentiates him from his peers. This is not about a disorder, disease or handicap. It’s more something along the lines of maybe colour, background, interests, gender preference or even height. Though they may not show it, there is always some insecurity within everyone. Something that they are scared everyone will find out about and they will be judged. Because for so many people around the world that is what the ultimate fear is. They may have a strong exterior but they’re terrified of being judged. Fortunately, today’s schools focus a lot on the concept of acceptance and it is difficult to find those extreme cases of people who aren’t accepted by anyone. A mistake that we make so often is comparing ourselves to those models on those glossy covers and wondering why we can’t be like them. Right there, flashing that brilliant smile between those perfect red pouty lips. And then, we read about their childhood. And realize for some, it was a lot worse than ours. Not accepted in high school for being too tall and having ‘kipper lips’, supermodel and English beauty Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is now the picture of perfection. Being one of the hottest models in the industry and taking the modelling world by storm, she is the best example of people who overcame their acceptance problems and became successful. She was however, not always this enamouring flawless skinned blond. Just look at her high school year book picture. Returning from the detour however, it’s back to acceptance. And now that I think of it, it’s simple to explain. Acceptance is a two-way street. You want it bad, you better be prepared to be able to give it good.

American Idol: The End of an Era

There is a famous saying “old is gold”. It refers to things that are past their prime time of glory and still are the best compared to anything that is new until the time that they completely disappear into oblivion. More often than not, people will agree that the new things are far far better than the old ones. In fact, except for things like antiques and grandparents, this saying cannot be applied to a lot of things without misleading being involved. American Idol is no different. There was time barely 3 or 4 years ago that American Idol was the most watched and loved music show in the world. That however was simply because it had no solid competitors. Now, with new shows that offer a more exciting and promising outcome and performance, American Idol’s viewers have dropped by 6%. Another reason for the drop in the viewing could be the innovativeness of the new shows such as the Voice which has blind auditions that doesn’t allow appearance to be part of the judgement made by the four celebrity judges, a judging method that is entirely appropriate for a show that chooses it participants based on their voices. The exit of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul didn’t do much to the show except ruin it a little more. With Simon’s blunt and often controversial criticisms, insults and wisecracks about the contestants MIA; along with Paula’s sympathy and compassion, the audience missed hearing about their differences which had often resulted in extremely heated on-air exchanges and confrontations. The new shows such as X Factor offered the return of these two highly acclaimed judges on the same panel and thus resulted in the viewing of the show to increase by 4%. This however was not the only thing Idol lacked in comparison to the new music shows today. The episodes of Idol were monotonous and the way things were done were predictable, even if not inter-episode but definitely inter-season. For the impatient audience that we are, this repeat is not wholly welcome. Like a bunch of little girls the ‘glitz and glamour’ offered by shows like the Voice and the new shows on MTV and VH1 are also things that attract us towards them. Admittedly there are times when you miss the old school stuff and that’s something that can’t be offered by anything new, hence the term ‘old’. Then, it’s American Idol all the way. In the end of the day however, the conclusion can’t be termed surprising. People enter, have their time in the spotlight and then exit; making way for new people to replace them. And just like it is with the participants in them, it is with the shows themselves.