Survivor: Cook Islands Wk 4

Being a week behind on these posts is aggravating. There has been a lot going on, but let’s see if I can’t get caught up.

There are a lot of reasons why people watch television, but if you break it down, there are two basic reasons: 1) education; and 2) entertainment.

Some programs are pure education such as the nightly news. If you want to know what is going on in the world you can watch network news or cable news channels. Just be aware of the politics behind any and all of these organizations. You may do better watching "C-SPAN".

Then there are also outlets such as “The Discovery Channel” and “The History Channel”. There are PBS programs like “Wall Street Week” and “Nova”. There are a lot of programs on television where you can learn about many things.

Other programs are pure entertainment, such as “America’s Got Talent” and “Dancing with the Stars”. Cable channels such as “E!” and "Fox News" are nothing but entertainment reaching for a specific niche audience. That is fine if that is what you want.

Then there are programs that blur the line. “Jeopardy” and other game shows do that. Talk shows, such as “Oprah Winfrey” and “Dr. Phil” have plenty of information, but are also considered entertainment.

Finally, there are the reality shows. Jeff Probst, when defending the racial element of this season’s “Survivor”, referred to the gambit as a further “social experiment”. This makes Probst appear to be a mad scientist and the players on the show, and in another way, the audience, are his “white mice”.

When we watch, we tell ourselves that we are learning about people and they way they react in various situations.

All this leads me to one conclusion: We aren’t learning anything from “Survivor”.

My scientific assumption is that anyone who would volunteer to appear on the program must have watched some of the show by this time. If that were the case, we wouldn’t see J.P. failing miserably last week.

Think back to earlier editions of the series. What do people say when considering voting people off, especially in these early stages of the season? “They don’t work hard.” “They are too strong and will beat us later on.” “They try to run things and are annoying.” Strike three, J.P.

Consider that J.P. didn’t work very hard during his time on the island. Consider that J.P. was obviously one of the stronger members lost out on the Cook Islands. Consider that he sat in camp and directed others on how to keep the fire running.

If he did watch previous editions of the show, all I can figure is that he wanted to go home more than Stephanie.

The other significant moment of the episode was the “Booby Nest Incident”. One tribe was walking through the jungle looking for food when they spotted a nest with a bird sitting in it. Cao Boi had the idea they could eat and egg or two. So what does he do? He shoos the bird away and tips over the nest! Brilliant! I do that all the time at the grocery store. If I want eggs, I tip the carton over into the cart.

Weren't their wild chickens on the island? Couldn't they find nests on the ground?

What really bothers me is that none of the other team members were telling him “don’t do that”. They were rooting him on until a baby bird fell from the nest. Then they get to look like great humanitarians by returning the baby bird and the nest to the tree.

So, what did we learn from this week’s "Survivor"? That non-professional actors who volunteer to be on television are stupid in general.

Then again, maybe the people who write about them aren’t that smart either.