Oprah Culture, named after the hyper successful daytime television powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, is soap opera in real life—which in the cause of destroying moralism so that nobody feels badly over their various dyfunctions—extols people pushing the envelope of cultural values, those involved in the most egregious personal irresponsibility, even criminality.
Oprah Culture permeates the entire media. For example, the media helped hide Kevorkian’s macabre goals by focusing obsessively on “suffering” during his nearly decade-long assisted suicide rampage, culminating with Time inviting him to its big 75th anniversary gala a decade ago where Tom Cruise—himself an A-List member of OC—ran up to shake his hand.
Oprah has been guilty repeatedly of pushing Oprah Culture, for example cooing over the “man” who was pregnant. When I was in the UK recently, a “13-year-old father” was all over the front pages for people to stare at like a zoo specimen. Demonstrating the terminal nonjudgmentalism that has grabbed us by the throat, his mother wouldn’t comment about her son because she didn’t want to interfere with his “business interests.” (The boy was marketing his story at the time.)
And now Dr. Phil, Oprah’s acolyte, joins the club by holding a televised baby shower for Nedya Suleman who has given birth to 14 babies conceived through IVF even though she is not apparently infertile. From the story:
The Southern California mother of octuplets was given a baby shower of sorts on television’s Dr. Phil show, with cribs, bunk beds, upgrades to her new home and nursing help to care for her 14 children - all provided free of charge. Various providers appeared before McGraw’s applauding studio audience to pledge their help creating a safe, clean home for Nadya Suleman’s 14 children.I nearly wretched in a grocery checkout line recently when I saw her as the cover story on US magazine.
I am not against assisting Suleman. She needs all the help she can get. But do it privately, and don’t put her on television for the enrichment of Dr. Phil, the voyeuristic pleasure of the viewing audience, and as an inspiration to those sad people who, desperately craving celebrity, may come to see the fulfillment of their dreams in acting so irresponsibly they become news!
These anything goes values are part of the coup de culture, hedonism division. And they are not limited to the realm of extreme personal behaviors. The corrupting rot has spread throughout the various levels of our culture—politics, business, science, medicine, journalism, education, etc.—to the point that responsible people feel like suckers. No wonder the roof is falling in.
