Okay. Let's get one thing out of the way. I watch 'X-Factor'. I enjoy 'X-Factor' - it is great TV, produced, edited and scripted in order to manipulate the highest possible amount of emotional involvement from the viewer. Having said that, I approach watching 'X-Factor' in the sound knowledge that I am being manipulated. Years of watching TV, doubled with an ever increasing life experience, has taught me to be cynical about such mindless entertainment for the masses. In the back of my mind there is always the thought that those involved are being used for no other reason than to make Simon Cowell another million or two.
What has struck me about this series however, are the reactions from the contestants - particularly the younger ones. One of them recently commented that they had grown up watching 'X-Factor' and that being given this opportunity was the only thing they had ever cared about. This is frightening. Is this generation of performer so rooted in the 'X Factor' culture that they see success, in fact, the only path to success being the 'X-Factor' way? Not to mention the fact that caring entirely for their own success might mean that they are missing out on other, quite important aspects of life, for example, other people!
It's as if this generation thinks that it is entitled to success. Society has taught them that 'being happy' is about 'having it all.' The media champions 'celebrity' as if it were some kind of pinnacle of life. Success is measured in the size of your house, the car you own or the looks that you're blessed with. Programs like the 'X-Factor', 'Big Brother', 'Britain's Got Talent' and countless others do nothing to dissuade young people of this. The riots around the country were a prime example of young people thinking that they had every right to go in and steal possessions that they hadn't earned. Virtually every 'X-Factor' contestant has stated at one time or another that they 'want this so much'. Well, fine. So you think that if you want something enough that gives you some kind of right?
This is beginning to turn into a rant so I'll pull it back. However, it is important to note where western society is pushing us and what it is championing. The result?Recession, greed, rioting.
But where does that leave a generation of young performers who are fighting for the success that society tells us should be ours?
Last term, I started an after-school acting club and found it to be a huge eye opener. A number of students, aged 8 - 11, simply refused to put in the work on technique and building group ensemble. They demanded that they wanted to do 'proper acting', as if I should have simply given them 'King Lear' and said, right, there you go, get on with it. It was frightening to see the complete and total individualism of a child of that age. Their needs were what were most important and there was no realism around their own talent or what was needed to create good results.
The facts of the matter are that so much more can be created in community or if you like, ensemble. Blatchington Mill Acting Club has been going for years. I have had the privilege of working with them for over a year and in that time I have seen a group of individuals transformed into an ensemble of performers. The students feel confident in each other and are prepared to focus on each other's work rather than purely their own. And what's more, they love it and find focus, definition and fun in working closely with other people their age. The result - every performance is better than the last.
It is our duty as adults to champion community. We can complain about the lack of it until we're blue in the face but unless we step up and begin to create it ourselves then no one else will. Yes, 'X-Factor' is great entertainment but what it creates and what it advocates can only lead more and more young people into an age of greater individualism.
The government, society, our culture or whatever you want to call it has pushed us to breaking point and it is up to those of us who have lived through it to teach the next generation where we went wrong.
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