With a new season of American Idol starting, we get to see all the nutcases and whack-jobs trying to finagle their way into getting their 15 minutes. Some people with actual talent make it to Hollywood, however some not so talented might slip through the cracks all due to the Sentimental Conspiracy. Some people come in with these heart-wrenching stories. Chris Medina came to American Idol with the tragic story about the loss of his fiancée, Juliana Ramos. His girlfriend had suffered a terrible brain injury, leaving her with severe mental retardation. Chris did the courageous and took on the role as caretaker, yet then he decided to audition for American Idol. I’m not criticizing him for auditioning, but I’m not the only one who thinks that his performance wasn’t stellar. People just go for the sob stories; they love the drama of it. On America’s Got Talent, Connor Doran made it to the semifinals with his kite-flying act. Yes, this kid flies his pretty little kites indoors for his talent. Now the trick is that he has epilepsy. I watched his audition. He spoke about how he has these negative feelings but flying the kites soothes him. Aw, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now. If I were to go onto that stage and fly a kite, I’d become one of those nutcases who simply suck and become the laughingstock of society, like William Hung (no offense to him). Yet once again, Connor’s sob story beats the other competition. VoteForTheWorst.com posted a list of the top sob stories on American Idol and rated how well they worked. Unfortunately, they’re working. People aren’t voting on talent, they’re voting on the sob story that produces the most tears. It’s the Sentimental Conspiracy at work.
In Existentialism, the Sentimental Conspiracy is defined a bit more broadly. It implies that people are pressured to behave as the rest of society does. In the case of the Idol sob stories, the sentimentalism in the Sentimental Conspiracy takes a double meaning because people are responding to the sentimental wishy-washy stories that people give and not to pure, raw talent, which is the original intent of the show. Yet it also is a great example of the Sentimental Conspiracy as it is given in Existentialism. Society pressures people into following it's rules. How bad would it look for people to tell the guy with epilepsy that he didn’t have enough talent for the show? It would be pretty rough, almost mean. Society falls for the sob stories and when you have the cynics call them out they become “haters”. Yet the goal of the show is to take the ones with the most talent and have them compete for the title of the best. This is a dog eat dog world and the best rise to the top. It’s not that the kid with epilepsy isn’t as special a person as opera singer Bryn Terfel, but the goal of the show is being tainted with society’s fear of hurting the feelings of others. I wish to bring up another point; we all have problems. Sure, none of us have had our fiancée wrecked in a car crash, but we’re all dealing, have dealt, or will deal with hard times, so why don’t we all get our fifteen minutes and try out for American Idol? I'm not saying that I don't feel sorry for the guy. He's incredible man for staying with and caring for his fiancée, but the show is about talent. The Sentimental Conspiracy is shown today in modern society as people choose the sob stories in order to follow society's rules and feel good about themselves instead of choosing talent.
