The Importance of Being Human

It would be a comment far too pessimistic to say that we can identify the society of the Victorian era with what we experience today in the United States. However, there are many aspects in the argument of the film that can easily be related to the current and growing social class dilemma we live in. The obsession with money and disregard for education and integrative community can be easily seen. What we observe in TV is now a standard that we try to emulate in a similar to the life during the Victorian era depicted on the Oscar Wilde's adaptation to the big screen The Importance of Being Earnest.

With the growth of television, we have created a world inside of our living rooms, a world that does not reflect the reality of what we live. Most of the popular shows in television depict the lives of very rich materialistic families, such as Gossip Girl, or reality shows that incentivize women to look for economic and superficial gain at marriage portrayed in The Bachelor.

Subconsciously, the world of television makes a big part of our days and begins to shape our lives and decisions. The standards of living that we see on TV are much higher than in real life, and in that way we try to catch up with what we see. To attain these economic dreams, instead of lying to others such as the character Jack-Earnest does in the film, we lie to ourselves. We choose our careers based on economic gain and seem to forget about what we really love to do. It is not a surprise to anybody to see people studying business or accounting at UNM just because it seems to be a career that will provide economic stability, but they have no problem admitting that they actually hate numbers, or would prefer not to be in an office environment.

In addition to the authority in television, there is a growing intent to decrease access to quality education. Schools are becoming more and more expensive, and the opportunity to learn seems to have become a privilege more than a possibility. It appears as if part of society in the US does not care about something as important for a healthy society as real education. Just as the character Augusta said, "Fortunately, in England at any rate, education produces no effect what-so-ever. If it did it would prove a serious danger to the upper class," we can read between the lines of political action in the government that they do not want us to think, they want us to do.

Although most of us would think that what we see in TV does not affect us or has any control over our behavior, we cannot forget that the average American person watches about four hours of television every day on average. In the Victorian era, the standards pushed humanity out of individuals away in a similar way in which television pushes reality off our days. In the Victorian times was an offense to show arms or express sexual feelings, today it is not good to talk about the social reality we live in and be critical. We think that "if people in TV can make it, why can't we make it? " It is a taboo to talk about helping each other as a community because everything is categorized as political, instead of simple compassion for each other. But everything is fine because it is all inside of a TV screen.