Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Do you know about the video series, Bumfights. I’d heard rumors of this stuff, but it’s true.

The producers make a transparent stab at giving their apparently profitable peepshow some kind of sociological importance:

The purpose of these videos, through satire and sensationalism, is to call attention to the global epidemics of poverty, violence, addiction, and lack of education. Fighting and violence of any form is ignorant and pathetic. Although the images we capture are often shocking, we do not believe these aspects of society should be kept hidden or ignored. You’ll see grown men trade blows on the streets, chick fights, stunts, sick pranks, crime caught on tape, crackheads, supermodels, and the most hardcore ruckus ever filmed. But please do not miss the point of these videos! Educate yourself. Help those who are less fortunate. Spread love not hate.

I love that last bit. Tape people at their lowest, sell it for the amusement of those who aren’t, and do it in the name of brotherly love.

Does this strike anybody else as comparable to Romans in the Coliseum during the decline and fall of their empire?

Public consumption of this muck drives the market, unfortunately.

Three words:

Girls Gone Wild

I know the market meets what`s demanded, bears what it will bear, and that as long as people keep buying, others will keep shoveling.

But what is it about us as a people that so often leads us to, a) accept and play to the lowest common denominator, b) allow others to do our thinking and decisionmaking for us (you need no more proof of that than voter turnouts), c) willingly give up our freedoms whenever some self-interested, self-serving nitwit says boo and d) allow vocal minority voices to override the majority, a la banning everything from peanuts to protests.

Maybe this is straying a little, but of all people, entrepreneurs aren`t cut from that kind of cloth, not successful ones -- even those that pander to moronic impulses by selling things like videotaped "bumfights."

It`s like drugs. Supply and demand. Unfortunately.