You're fired!

There are plenty reasons why I don't have a TV. NBC's smash hit "The Apprentice" is the best anti-TV argumet I found so far. The show's star and executive producer is Donald Trump who selects, over six weeks of business challenges, the candidate who will become the "apprentice" at The Trump Organization and receive the ultimate award for Wall Street shark: a millionaire's salary. Of course, the biggest american multinationals are enlisted to participate in many of the tasks, which supposively test challengers intelligence, chutzpah and street-smarts. The multi-billionaire Trump does not tolerate loser and fires them all one after the other. Hence the success of the show, watch by millions of Americans who just got laid off by a sky-profit making muntinational company.
So what does the audience exactly learn from watching "The Apprentice"? First that Donald must have fired a lot of people to become so rich. Secondly the message is loud and clear: NBC hits the jackpot with the advertisement junk supposed to fill our emptied brain at a rate of every fifteen minutes during the two-hour long show. Finally the show confirms established values of modern capitalist democracies: success defined by how much of the production line you control, team work as serving personal interests, the fittest survive, no pity nor second chance for losers, etc... Some still call it the American dream. What is actually concerning me is the influence of these values in international trade agreements, domestic and international politics, social policies, environment, etc. Whether directly inplemented by reductionist policy-makers or imposed by the IMF or the World Bank, some core components of development policies tragically ressemble the world of "The Apprentice": deregulated labour markets, the hegemony of privatization, the power of multinationals over medias, the individualistic attitudes and the ruthless business oriented competitive environment... You're not watching TV, you might be watching the decay of western society.

Besides Trump really needs a haircut.