����Well, I watched Survivor tonight because everyone else has been for eons and I was wondering what all the hullabaloo was about. Marn, cultural 'tard, huh?

����I've seen bits of shows, but never sat through a whole episode before tonight. From all the talk in Diaryland I got a good picture of the basic premise, but I was shocked by the cruelty of the show I just saw.

����A system set up to discourage honesty and compassion.

����A system set up to reward the most selfish, calculating, manipulative and ruthless person with a truckload of money.

����The people who participated tonight, no matter how decent they might be in their real lives, have been shown to us at their most venal.

����They are, Paul tells me, mini-celebrities and some are being offered great jobs. "Hey, you ruthless, conniving, backstabbing son-of-a-bitch," says someone in Human Resources, "does our company ever need YOU!"

����I missed the beginning episodes. Perhaps at the start it wasn't this way. Perhaps at the start you got to see these people as they probably are in their real lives. Perhaps you came to care about them before they were twisted by a system that forced them to set aside their better selves.

����Some folks might argue that Survivor is just Darwinism being played out, survival of the fittest and all that.

����I would say back that it is Darwinism turned on its head, survival of the social misfit, that it is an object lesson in how our lives would be if we didn't try to temper them with honesty and compassion.

����I expected to be entertained, but instead I was depressed.

����Zoinks. Even more proof that I'm a boring, out-of-step fuddy duddy. How sad.

����Is there a twelve step program for this?