Considering that I hate the “Reality TV” meme probably more than anyone alive, it’s not surprising that I’m a week late on the Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin vote hacking (open voting, vote fixing, over voting, rigged voting, security flaw, etc.) controversy.

Call it whatever you wish, but if there is a clearer sign that U.S. culture is circling the drain than this…

Image Source: Hillbuzz.org – Bristol Palin Dancing with the Stars Watch Party Thread

… I don’t think I’ve seen it.

Superb Marketing

From a business and marketing vantage point, this is an absolute brilliant move! Controversy sells, arguably, better than sex because there are few things Americans like more than drama. Plus, you can market your controversy to the under 18 years of age crowd without having to deal with parental blocking issues.

Thus, your ratings, page views, and free publicity all skyrocket with little to no work on your part on the stage has been set.

Well done on all money making fronts!

The Ethics of We Must Respond in Kind

From a cultural standpoint, however, I think the captured image (pieced together from different commenters) is another glowing example of U.S. society skipping the proverbial rock across our cultural low point.

Grown adults, knowingly, perhaps spitefully, voting for a contestant who obviously can’t perform at a level that rivals the performance(s) of her competitors is a gross obfuscation of contest’s original game plan where the best dancer takes the prize. However, through the means of digital chicanery, the poorest performer is allowed to remain within the competition due solely to the unethical actions of legions of (her mother’s political) fans.

Perhaps worst of all, this message is being passed on to younger generations not only as an acceptable code of conduct, but the status quo.

I am sympathetic to their logic: but the other side (liberals) are doing it too! Of this, I have no doubt.

This sort of faulty “they’re doing it, so we must do it more to win the day” groupthink logic only prolongs the conflict (think Israelis vs. Palestinians) and exacerbates the inaccuracy of whatever contest you set out to measure.

The resulting endgame is an escalation of events between the two or more parties, where the rightful winner was supposed to be based on merit, natural ability and hard work, but could possibly become the contestant who can simply rally the most supporters and who can rig the most votes in their favor.

Award Inflation

As with President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize while waging two wars, as with Warren Buffett winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom for piggybacking the TARP bailout companies, and if, by the grade of the Almighty or an inept/rigged voting system, Bristol Palin wins the Dancing with the Stars contest, the institution of giving awards to the most deserving citizens, much like the U.S. Dollar, is experiencing mass quantities of inflation.

This “award inflation” only serves to devalue the award itself by lowering the required amounts of personal achievement. The danger of award inflation is rather obviously, for it cheapens the award itself by lowering the bar for anyone else who may or may not want to pursue it.

So honestly…

Who would honestly say they won a dancing competition trophy that was, or has been, won by Bristol Palin after her mediocre performance.

Not many.

Who Deserves More Shame?

You have to wonder, though, who should draw more ire and/or sympathy:

the people who wasted hours of their life trying to vote 100+ times for their personal favorite and cheering themselves on for circumventing the rules…

or

… the network executives and Dancing with the Stars producers who couldn’t care less who wins, who purposely left a no-brainer voter fidelity loophole open a mile wide, and whose only concern is how many times their Reality TV show derivative gets from free PR. (There is no bad publicity, after all.)

In my humble opinion, there is enough blame to go around.

However, this Dancing with the Stars controversy is an appropriate microcosm of what is plaguing the good ol’ USA: when the personal/business ethics of a culture once built upon always doing the right thing becomes negotiable, if not extinct, as long the outcome from breaking the rules results in an outcome to their liking.