Predecessor to Survivor, and related reality television
shows.
A show that started to air around 1998 in Japan in which a
contestant is locked naked in a room without furniture, food,
goods, or entertainment except a few magazines); and forced to
win through mail-in contests whatever he needed. See following
webpage in english: http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/nasubi.html
The show was recently Slashdotted: See article at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/06/08/2354257&mode=thread&threshold=-1.
And, as usual, a very long series of people voiced their
opinions
and flames on the subject. Such reactions, of course,
beg interesting questions:
Is it appropriate to pass judgement on other cultures
without having a complete and full understanding of the social,
economical, political, geopolitical, geographical, philosophical,
and historical context of an event - or chain of events - and the
implications of such an event(s)?
And furthermore, what about the implications of
voicing an erroneous opinion, especially if such an opinion,
although inaccurate, becomes a collective and powerful one, that
will most probably serve as guide to similarly less educated or
less open-minded people?