You know, I try to remain optimistic. I like to think no matter what minor setbacks we encounter, humanity is progressing toward a more peaceful and enlightened existence. But I am wrong.

According to this NY Times article (via phronesisaical), we have exported a horror to Iraq so great that I feel the need to personally apologize to any Iraqi who is affected. It is so vile that it ranks third - just below death and destruction, and slightly ahead of democracy - out of the most influential exports we've brought to this troubled country. We've brought them reality television.

From the article:

Reality TV could turn out to be the most durable Western import in Iraq. It has taken root with considerably greater ease than American-style democracy. Since spring 2004, when "Materials and Labor" made its debut, a constellation of reality shows has burst onto TV screens across Iraq.

True to the genre, "Materials and Labor" has a simple concept at its heart - Al Sharqiya, an Iraqi satellite network, offers Baghdad residents the chance to have homes that were destroyed by the war rebuilt at no cost to them.

This summer, a rival network, Sumeria, began running "Iraq Star," an amateur singing competition that bears more than a passing resemblance to "American Idol."

The disease known as reality television has spread so thoroughly that it led Majid al-Samarraie to say, and I quote, "This is the only good thing we've acquired from the American occupation."

I thought I could ignore reality television and it would go away. "I'll just watch something else," I told myself, not knowing how foolish I was. You can't ignore it. It spreads and adapts, like a viral infection with a 200 IQ. You start out with simple shows, like Survivor and Real World, and the next thing you know you have Who Wants My Mom to Marry a Midget?.

You may think that I'm overreacting, that reality television isn't that bad. But that's just what IT wants you to think. It's so evil that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that IT somehow engineered this whole war just so it could spread to other countries.

I'm sorry Iraq. I'm sorry.