“Dirty Jobs” Cancelled By a Dirty Reality
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The Age of Kardashian sweeps away an instructive show on hardworking people with jobs most of us would never do
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Last month, the reality show Dirty Jobs was cancelled.
The show highlighted in detail the gritty and often disgusting aspects of jobs that most of us would never even consider doing. In a farewell statement, the show’s host Mike Rowe described some of the (mis-) adventures of “dangling from bridges, crawling through mines, swimming with sharks, castrating sheep, transplanting giant cacti, or slowly freezing to death on the Arctic Ocean.”
Admittedly, I never sought out the show on tv during the rare occasions that the family granted me discretionary time but when I cam across an episode, I was fascinated not only by the process revealed but how people cheerily accepted, if not embraced, their jobs. I was also grateful that I was fortunate enough to have an avocation that “pushed the pencil” (or “pressed the keyboard”).
Mike Rowe not only taught us about the dirty aspects of people’s jobs but also about society’s tastes
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And of course, the show was a refreshing change as it was not one of your typical reality shows (think: the Kardashians) where people are throwing rhetorical and psychological pies in each others faces. It speaks volumes that many in our society are put off and disgusted by someone shucking oysters yet utterly untroubled (if not enjoying) watching families disintegrate before their eyes. The truth is that Dirty Jobs was cancelled by the dirty reality that too many in our society prefer base over upright.
Mr. Rowe went on to say “I’d like to thank my granddad. Carl Knobel was an electrician by trade, but so much more. He was a role model to me, my brothers, my cousins, my uncles, my Dad, and everyone else who knew him. Like so many of his generation, he worked more than he played, listened more than he spoke, and quietly went about the business of making civilized life possible for the rest of us. Dirty Jobs was inspired by him, and dedicated to millions of other Americans cut from the same cloth – men and women blessed with raw skill, the discipline to hone it, the diligence to apply it, and the willingness to wake up clean and come home dirty. Those attributes may go out of style from time to time, but they will never vanish. They mustn’t. Thanks Pop, very much.”
Mr. Rowe may have crawled through sewers and shoveled manure, but he exemplified and taught a mores and work ethic that is in full retreat at all levels of society these days, from Main Street all the way up to the executive suite.
-I.M. Windee
