naive

Spoiler alert for those who have not yet watched the latest episode of Survivor (Thursday, May 8, 2008) and intend to. That specific episode is discussed in this post.

The sixteenth installment of Survivor concludes this weekend. For this season the hook for the show has been that previous members of the show were pitted against major fans. While this sounds like a good angle, I am not sure the survivors who were picked all portray the image that the producers of Survivor want people to have of fans of the show.

Two of the fans in particular, Jason and Erik, made multiple missteps out of naivete that eventually led to their departure from the island. This was unfortunate, because I liked both of them. Their weaknesses were due to them not understanding how dishonest other people can be. They did not pick up on even obvious deviousness because they didn't think deviously. These personalities more or less guaranteed that they would get played somewhere along the line. The women who played them were all natural liars too, so that definitely helped.

For as much as I liked both Jason and Erik, I don't think that either should have been on the show for several reasons. First, having them on the show puts the idea in people's heads that the typical audience is socially awkward. Second, it was not pleasant for me to watch their almost predestined skewering. Third, I don't think there are many things that are more demoralizing to most men than to be exposed as stupid, ineffective, or naive, so I think they should have been spared what seemed to me an inevitable outcome.

I mentioned a couple of years ago that I don't like to be seen as particularly naive. I know I am naive on some levels, but I really don't want to be. Where I can, I try to rid myself of that image. Because of this I think I would have been too paranoid to make the mistakes that Erik or Jason did if I were in their shoes. Even so, seeing those mistakes played out on screen hit home. You won't find me on an island with nineteen other people who are all anxious to stab me in the back as they smile to my face.