What is valued more in the world? Beauty of the mind, or beauty of the body? In the media today it seems the latter is valued far more then the former. Recently the news has been dominated by the death of Anna Nicole Smith, a playboy model, reality TV star and a stripper who married an old man to get some cold hard cash. Her death and the search for her baby’s father has dominated the news. On April 11th Kurt Vonnegut one of the most influential American writers of our time passed away. The author of Slaughter House Five and Cats Cradle would surely receive a heavy block of news time on the day of his death or at lest a few moments of silence, but what did he get? 1 minute on the six o’clock news followed by what felt like a ten minute bit about Anna Nicole Smith’s “Babydaddy.”

What is happening to the values of our society today is we are becoming more vapid and self centered. Kurt Vonnegut and Anna Nicole Smith are examples of this. Anna Nicole Smith did nothing for the greater good of society but provided her breasts, bleached blonde hair, and a smile. Where as Kurt Vonnegut put thoughts and ideas out into the world and gave social commentaries through his books, but today people care more about image instead of brains or substance.

Instead of headlines about politics we get headlines about Gavin Newsom changing his hair, and instead of headlines about fuel research we have headlines about how Britney Spears flashed her “who ha” to the entire world.

What we must ask ourselves is… does the media show us what we feel is important or does is make us focus on what they want us to think is important? It is a little of both because we do get engrossed with stories about who is the father, or who is going into rehab. Gone are the days of looking up to people who put things out into the world that just might cause a change. What kind of world are we creating for future generations, where shows like The Swan or Extreme Make Over are thought of as good entertainment, shows where they take people and give them plastic surgery to make them conform to today’s standard of beauty. Where the Anna Nicole Smiths, Britney Spears and Paris Hiltons are the idols and the Kurt Vonnegut’s, Robert Bakker’s and Sylvia Plath’s are forgotten in the dust.