Paris Hilton and the
Hillbillies
 In a yet another stupid reality television series, Paris
Hilton, rich heiress to the hotel chain fortune, and her equally
rich and equally pampered girlfriend, filmed a series where they
lived and worked with a real southern farm family in the
Arkansas Ozarks.
The program was billed as a cultural conflict between rural
and urban lifestyles, though, in reality, it was more of a
conflict between rich and poor lifestyles. Apparently, Hilton
and friend have led sheltered lives and have never had previous
opportunity for a cultural experience in how the rest of the
world lives.
While it appeared that this would be nothing but another
opportunity for people to laugh at redneck hillbillies, it
turned out to be an opportunity to make fun of the arrogant rich
instead. Dressing in skimpy outfits, flirting, and playing it up
for the cameras, the women managed to make a visible spectacle
of their values, which were in obvious conflict with those of
ordinary people.
Now I must admit that I watched only one episode of this
series, that being about all I could stomach, but I have read
and heard about the other episodes. The main reason most people
watched the show was because of an X-rated video of Paris Hilton
that circulated the Internet prior to the show being aired.
People were curious about who this person is that everyone is
talking about, and what she is really like, as if were not
already obvious.
While it is difficult to know whether these Barbie types were
as clueless about the real world as they pretended or whether
they were exaggerating it for the filming, enough of it was
apparently true to give a somewhat accurate picture of the great
social disparity between the filthy rich and just plain folks.
In a country where most consider themselves middle class, it was
not a pretty picture.
The rich took nothing seriously. Work was something that
other people have to do. The wealthy are used to breaking rules,
which were made for people without enough money to buy their way
out of trouble. Without their credit cards, wads of money, and
cell phones, they scarcely knew how to exist and were bored most
of the time. So, they spent the small amount they earned at
various minimum wage jobs on drinking and partying, a way of
amusing themselves in the alien environment called real life.
Shopping at Wal-Mart was nothing like shopping at Sax on
daddy’s credit card apparently. They charged personal items on
their employer’s charge account, ran up bar bills they could
not pay, and destroyed property in drunken temper tantrums. In
the protected environment of their rich existence, such behavior
was viewed as simply eccentric, not as the serious breach of
social etiquette and personal conduct that it was in a small
rural town.
We’ve seen the farm vs. city conflict before when Eva Gabor
left the city and tried to take all it with her to live a
country-style life in Green Acres. The difference was
that Eva Gabor at least had class.
And so it goes. After the cameras quit rolling, the rich
returned home to their conspicuous consumption and privileged
life and the poor but honest family got a bit of notoriety by
being on television and trying to teach selfish brats the values
that average people hold, a lesson that didn’t take. The rich
brats said thanks with a new car to replace the beat up pickup
truck they had driven while visiting. Everybody wins.
Well, not really. We were reminded that multi millionaires
live much better than the rest of us, but do not really
appreciate their pampered existence. It left us wondering who is
really rich in things that matter, the shallow and worthless
socialites of the world or the lower class family that values
honesty and truthfulness and works hard for everything. The
answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it?
Copyright 2004 Sheila Moss
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