Simon Cowell is a D*ck

Simon Cowell is a d*ck. I don't think there is a more pleasant or articulate word to describe him, without referring to or repeating this base American expression. Maybe I haven't expended enough energy upon the task. Maybe Joyce, had he been alive, also would have arrived at the same place in the dictionary. Gore Vidal might do better, but it is his job, and he's paid for such eloquence.

That said, I actually like Simon Cowell. I admire his perception of, and focus upon, the clear and present reality of his "contest". He refreshingly cuts to the metaphorical chase. He is cringe-ingly honest. Cruel, yes indeed, but honest. And rarely wrong in his area of expertise, though needless to say I would hesitate to consult him on issues relating to good-banks and bad-banks, or the relative virtues of The Taylor Rule. Daresay I am no expert on things Idol (or X-Factor for those on the receiving end of Jim Rogers latest abuse). But, I will admit (somewhat ashamedly), that I have paused during occasional channel surfing sojourns, and watched his spectacle with a rubbernecker's combination of morbid fascination, bewilderment and bemusement.

While I suspect there is something unsavourily dishonest about the antics of some of the contestants who willingly submit themselves to the inevitable ridicule and abuse, beyond the strange desire for a few moments of celebrity, there appears to be (if my bullshit detectors are in order) a far greater number of contestants who are genuinely confused, surprised, not to mention seemingly devastated by the reception they receive from those on the far side of the judge's table. These people genuinely seem NOT to understand that their perception of reality (often longly and dearly held) is, and has been, continents apart from, not just the cruel, critical, honest eyes of the panel, but of - and I hesitate before invoking the phrase - the world of objective reality. Perhaps as a result of overly-sympathetic and/or sensitive friends and family, an overly-supportive "everyone's a winner" culture, or their own denial, they are, in a single word, clueless.

And as I am watch yet another now-teary-eyed hopeful [if not rightfully then accurately] crucified by Mr Cowell, I cannot help myself from making the comparison to American's similar bewilderment over the causes of the current crisis, and economic state which they collectively find themselves. They too, don't have clue and quite genuinely seem not to understand what has happened, what they did wrong, what got them here, or there, as if the words "reflection" or "introspection" were entirely foreign from the English language on these shores of the Atlantic. This reveals itself in the pronouncements from lawmakers, interviews with ordinary people, selective lynchings by the media without the wholesale indictment of the hand that feeds them.

Yet sober-minded people DO exist in America. It was thirty years ago that Jimmy Carter donned a cardigan and spoke of malaise, it's causes, and proposed solutions, (thrift, parsimony, hard-work, sustainability, quality vs. quantity, replacing the emptiness of consumption with more spiritual things, faith, morality, optimism). Little of said redemption recipe was heeded despite the inherent correctness of his advice. And for twenty-five subsequent years to the present, rather than seeing the wisdom in his words, America as seen them as sanctimonious choosing instead the absurdity of renting the public interest for parochial gain, worse-than-neglectful energy policy, managed healthcare, unrelenting geographic sprawl, the dismissal of pricing negative externalities, rights without responsibilities, self-regulation, ballooning expansion of credit without any reasonable tether to sustainability, billions in bonuses coincidental to negative-billions at the bottom of the income statement, sub-prime lending, LBOs, SIVs, ZIRP, internet bubbles, housing bubbles, commodity bubbles, government bond bubbles, persistent half-trillion-a-year current account deficits, lending to a borrower to withdraw equity leaving a wafer-thin margin upon an illiquid depreciating asset that recently doubled or tripled, the packaging of non-recourse under- or un-secured loans-to-already-indebted people without a Plan-B and calling them 'AAA', leaving the lights on everywhere when no one is around, electing a President (twice!) whose unashamed objective was to terrorize the Public Interest, or building low quality 2x4 wooden homes in hurricane alley on a floodplain is almost beyond comprehension. And undoubtedly one could add their own litany of petty tyrants that offend any semblance of prudential decency or common-sense. And while this is going on, lawmakers and The People occupied themselves with steroid use in professional sports, how to insure prophylactics and birth-control pills receive second billing to abstinence, the un-sanctity of gay marriage, 10 things not to do with a cigar, amongst others trivial pursuits.

But now, America has finished performing. Now, Simon Cowell-The-market has harshly declared judgment. It isn't kind. It isn't nice. It stings and hurts. But it is truthful and honest and correct. Yet it remains almost unfathomable that they still cannot see its own culpability, despite it cutting wide and deep into each and every crevice of the Polity - in media, in government, in individuals, in academia. There's anger. There's disbelief. Dreams have been shattered. The tears are coming. But please, don't beg. Don't cry. Stoically face up to it. Affirm culpability. Introspect. Deal with reality. And most importantly, learn from your mistakes...