A Genius's View

Former pro wrestler and certifiable genius (He's a Harvard graduate!) Chris Nowinski is writing a fascinating series of columns from the Democratic National Convention. Here's a couple excerpts from his last couple updates:

"The television coverage of the convention doesn’t appeal to young people because it has fundamental flaws that can best be understood through comparisons to the sports-entertainment business.  The convention on television is an entertainment product – only it’s not entertaining.  Every WWE fan can recognize the convention planners stole a good deal from wrestling, but I don’t think they understand why people watch the WWE.  They borrowed our Titantron, but they don’t put any brilliantly packaged videos on it to engage us.  They borrowed our stage and ramp (changed to stairs), but nobody walks down it for dramatic effect. And what’s with the “elevator” entrance music? They have announcers, but the announcers don’t add any life to the show (where is JR when you need him?).  The only thing missing is the ring, but they don’t need that because there is nothing to fight over.

The outcomes in wrestling are predetermined, but we don’t tell our fans who will win before the show.  That would take all the fun out of the wrestlers “telling a story” and engaging the imaginations of the audience through their performances. 

This convention is so ridiculously scripted, packaged, manipulated, censored, and sanitized that there is no real reason for us to care.  The founding fathers must be turning in their graves."

For more of Chris's fascinating take on the convention, check out http://vote.wwe.com/news/Notesfromtheconvention.html.