Kid Nation

I don't think so.

Face it, from the time the 1960's rolled into being, the people who decided that 'the next generation' should be in charge changed our perspective, our beliefs and our society on a national level. Not all of that change has been for the better, either.

Now, in their infinite insanity, the people who have brought reality out of life and into a television set near you bring us "Kid Nation".

"We can't solve our problems as adults because we never learned to work together as children." Or at least that is the premise behind the program that is sure to demonstrate that as a whole, children are just that - CHILDREN. As for the adults behind this moment of ludicrous television, all I have to say is "Put down the peyote and come up for a breath of fresh air!"

We cannot stuff them into adult scenarios and expect measurable successes on this program because they HAVE to offer a safety net. We can't turn these kids loose on each other or tragedy would strike. Can anybody spell 'Lord of the Flies'?

When adults on reality shows get hurt, the medic staff swoops down and patches them up or takes them to a medical facility. Likewise, the children on kid nation get supervised by adults, doctors, nurses, tutors and, as an added little bonus, get a warm water slip and slide tower for their efforts in assembling rudimentary plumbing from pre-cut pipes on one of their little "manufactured challenges".

Although I have studied the pioneering time period extensively, I cannot find one concrete reference to the pioneers having either option offered to them. I imagine the luxury of having a doctor at their beck and call would have saved the pioneers from a plethora of aggravating and distressing circumstance. Not to mention saving quite a few from that pesky death thingy.

Louis L'Amour said it best when he wrote "I've seen tenderfeet sicken and die from things that wouldn't harm a ten year old girl born in the West."

Oddly enough, the Kid Nation plumbing assembly challenge sort of made me mad. There are absolutely no references to having fresh clean water chugging through PVC pipes somewhere out on the open plains of what was yet to become America. The poor old pioneers had to strain the particulate matter, live and not so live, from their water so they could take in what was available in sloughs or rank pools of water when the creeks ran dry. Beggers couldn't be choosers which is why some of the beggers and whole lot of the choosers lie in mostly unmarked graves across the expanse of the westward migration route.

I can only imagine how the pioneers would have welled up in great fat tears to have fresh, clean running water along their trek to the great unknown. Likewise, the ability for Abner and Luke to shuck off their boots at the end of a 15 mile day for a quick romp on the slip-n-slide would have not only made them feel more refreshed, but certainly would have made the evening pass more pleasantly for them and their wives behind the old Conestoga flaps later on that night.


What Kid Nation purports to do is an interesting goal. But what it lacks is the ability to keep bribery from the forefront of human endeavor. A $21,000 gold star would make Huey, Louie and Dewey turn on each other like ducks on a spit.

If they really wanted to help the 'next generation' truly be better than we are, then how about the prize for each level of attainment being a deferred reward, like COLLEGE TUITION for Associates Level, then on to Bachelor's Level and so on.

And I have no problem giving prizes that are useful. But I seriously doubt these kids, any of them, have an annuity towards their own retirement.

Yeah, I'm laughing too.

The fact that is being played out in front of us is a visual of that old saw "HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES" and in this case, the broker of the gold is a group of morally bankrupt old farts in the studios who have smoked so much weed they can't tell a good idea from a withered fistula.

No wonder everyone is hoping someone else will come to the earth and take over. At least it would be different.