You Can't Sugar Coat The Apprentice

Today's blog is a look at that popular exercise in human devaluation, BBC1's The Apprentice.
This is a show that takes domineering, self obsessed, passive aggressive individuals, and then rewards them for ruthlessness and subservience to the boss - a barely disguised metaphor for success in a capitalist society then.
Maybe that's what is so compelling about this show. We can all identify with the various trials faced by the 12 apprentices, but we're not quite as prepared to go the same depths of depravity as these 'high flying executive' types. It's a bit like the fascinating horror gleaned from watching a dog unrepentantly lick vomit.
Much of the show is taken up with the 12 contestants/applicants involved in 'negotiations' to "drive down prices", as they strive despairingly to satisfy the whims of jumped-up Del Boy, Alan Sugar.

"Karen! Oi con't werk iss loight swytch."

Most of these 'negotiations' are squirm inducing-ly degrading, as shop owners stare disbelievingly at the hopeful's ability to bridle their brimming tears of shame.
Well, they are described by those involved as 'negotiations' but, more often than not, the tasks descend to your common-or-garden begging. The slim veneer of 'business acumen' commonly slips from the shoulders of ambition to reveal a glaring peek-a-boo bra of desperation.
We laugh at the Eastern game shows that seem to torture competitors in feats of endurance, but at least they emerge from the their ordeals with their dignity somewhat intact having proved some latitude of bravery in the least.
Success in the apprentice is an altogether dirtier affair. It can only be garnered through complete, genuine and utter revocation of all dignity, self-respect, loyalty to your fellow man and common manners as they snap phones from each other and zealously betray their colleagues at the first moment possible. 
The title of the show really should be 'The who is the most effective at swindle and the least concerned with ethical integrity-entice'
The main advantage of the show however, is that it is a damning indictment of modern business practices, to those who are looking hard enough. It reveals the absurdity of the reward structure in the western world, a world where you can fill your pockets with shameless exploitation, and where draconian subservience will get you places.
None of this applies to Jim however. He, of course, is the man.