The last word on Survivor Fiji

I know it's really frivolous, even for someone who usually includes one or two Survivor contestants on her annual Brilliant list and a few seasons ago did an advance look at the contestants. But the appalling spectacle of the loose cannon Dreamz destroying his reputation for a futile chance at a million dollars, a chance even he must have known he didn't really have, showed graphically the truly ugly side of Survivor. It's not that Dreamz went back on his word, and I don't see it as "stealing a truck from an old man", as some have called it. It IS, after all, a game of outplay, outwit, outlast. It's more that he seemed to be genuinely conflicted about his decision and then said it was all an act. Setting up a black guy to be the villain is practically a trademark on this show, and I'm not sure that a genuinely good-guy winner who is a black male compensates for the appalling spectacle that was Dreamz Herd in the final episode.

Greed is a constant undercurrent in the game of Survivor, and the disingenuousness of the insane Lisi accusing the three finalists of being driven by greed underscored how for someone like Dreamz, it's not a game, but a very real chance at a changed life. The question is how Dreamz' life will change now that he dicked over the most popular and arguably the most deft player in the game's 14 seasons vs. how it would have changed had he settled for fifteen or twenty grand less and the truck, and lived up to his promise.

Perhaps the most interesting commentaries on Dreamz' dilemma comes from Survivor: Cook Islands' arch-villain Jonathan Penner and Survivor: Panama's Bob Mason, who between the two of them make the show's "Survivor Strikes Back" blog worth reading.

Penner:

Yau didn’t think Dreamz was a wild card though. He thought he was a person like him. Because it’s hard to imagine people NOT being like you.

[snip]

I think knowing where our next meal is coming from and where our next night of bed-rest will take place, gives us the time and the security to project ourselves into the future. Where we can see how something immediately gratifying might have long term ramifications. I see that maybe we take for granted the socialization and the education that teaches how a little self-sacrifice can have a tremendous long term benefit. That teaches good will, integrity and a guilt-free conscience are worth A LOT -- to the folks you are dealing with and to one’s self.

Most of us didn’t grow up on the streets. Maybe if we had -- with few long term opportunities, learning to seize the few chances right before our eyes, we might have done what Dreamz did too. He probably earned 20,000 dollars more than Yau in the game. And he got the truck. That ain’t chicken feed. We might have taken the immediate gains too, unaware of (or willing to endure) the hatred and nausea that would follow us.

But the problem for me is, it makes me kind of tired and sad and angry, really. I think his kind of thinking is why, in the real world, so many people find themselves in jail or on the streets. Because of their own short-sightedness. And by extension, the shortsightedness of the system that cannot help them see a long-term future of hope and health. I don’t know how to fix that system. I don’t know anything except personal responsibility. Dreamz was lucky/smart/special enough to get on Survivor – he’s now rich and (in)famous. Most folks from his former situation don’t get that break. He played it as best he could, I guess, but I resent his way of thinking. Or rather, the way of thinking, he is emblematic of. And even if I can understand it objectively, (if I do) I don’t like it.

Honestly, it scares me. Not Dreamz, of course, but what his actions say to me.

[snip]

Yes, all this from a f’ing game show.

Mason:

I had no idea people actually still say out loud stuff like “the Asians are smart” and “the blacks are lazy” and “I’m not racist. I have black friends.” That’s so… 90s. It sounds like something from one of those ‘lesson’ episodes on Diff’rent Strokes...

And for the record, there is nothing child-like about Yau Man. The dude is 50 something and he has a degree from MIT. He is the director of Info Systems at Cal Berkeley. The DIRECTOR. From the neck up Yau Man is one of the most powerful players the game has ever seen. He’s one of the most active thinkers and most cognizant of his surroundings of anyone that’s played. He doesn’t deserve to be patronized as being ‘noble’ and ‘child-like’.

And make no mistake: Yau made the truck offer not out of goodwill but for GAME ADVANTAGE. He was trying to manipulate Dreamz for personal game advantage—which is what you’re supposed to do. He said himself that you can’t take promises seriously in this game.

It was a calculated risk and he got burned. He offered Dre the truck in exchange for immunity. That was a declaration of war and it was apparent to Dre. When is the last time someone voluntarily gave up immunity anyway?!?!? If Dre had done that, I can only imagine the “Dre is dumb and therefore all black people are dumb, except the 3 good blacks that I work with” threads that would be popping up all over the place.

Nothing Dre has done suggests that he’d keep his word, so who’s fault is it that he didn’t do it here? If dog bites you once, shame on dog. If dog bites you twice, shame on you… Yes, it was despicable that Dreamz did what he did but let’s not canonize Yau just yet, they’re 2 separate issues. Yau was making a game move, just like when he made a fake idol. This happened to make him look noble and generous (which I believe he is) while the fake idol thing makes him look devious and cunning (which I believe he is). And Dre lying for personal advantage was bad, real bad. But as ‘noble’ as Colby and Ian’s symbolic gestures were, they were also dumb.

Those of you who watch the show remember Ian Rosenberger taking a dive in the final immunity challenge on Survivor: Palau because his friendship with eventual winner Tom Westman was worth more to him than a chance at a million bucks. Rosenberger was excoriated far and wide for that decision, because it is Missing the Point of Survivor.

Sometimes a season plays out without anything being revealed other than too much flesh during challenges, seasons in which a Yul Kwon or a Tom Westman sails pretty much straight through to the end without a lot of tension. And the fact that all three finalists this season were black may point to a very real effort by Mark Burnett to overcome some of the racist portrayals his show has produced in the past, from the laziness of Sean Rector to Clarence Black "stealing" a can of beans to the preposterously buff Osten Taylor quitting in mid-stream to the cringeworthy Ted-and-Ghandia fracas of Survivor: Thailand. Dreamz Herd's cranium-combusting rants may have made for interesting television, but when Mark Burnett set his trap, he walked right into it.