It's just not the real world

I was flipping through the channels last night and came upon one of "The Real World" series on MTV.

In the few minutes I watched this was all I saw:

Everyone was fighting with each other. They screamed, swore, called each other names and insulted each other. No one seemed ready to make sacrifice towards any other member of the household.

Everyone went out to some party called "pimps and hos" and got really drunk, and then they started to fight again. Allegations of alcoholism were thrown at each other.

Then, everyone went back and a four or five of them paired or trioed off and slept together.

I know I've written on this subject before, but I see no "Real World" in this. If this is what my generation is all about, then Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Montana Militias have it all right. We should all be taken out behind the woodshed and shot. All these twenty-somethings with their picture-perfect bodies and overextended egos drinking, partying, screwing and hating, where is the humanity in this?

Of course, most people don't live this way, but people do look to this as the ideal, as the standard, or at least as a situation they would all like to have. I mean, who wouldn't like to live in a beach house with a bunch of good-looking people who seem to have no responsibility other than having a good time? Except they aren't having a good time, because all they do is think about themselves. Young people see these people's lives and take cues from them. This is being held up as what our generation is supposed to be like.

I believe in having a good time. I believe in enjoying yourself, but you know what? Some traditionalists in our society actually have a point. Being a happy person does involve selfLESSness and sacrifice. It involves work and self-restraint. Those things can actually BRING happiness, they aren't just necessary evils. I hope more people will see this without going to the other extreme. It's only in self-control that you can find what really matters.