The Reality Steve Lawsuit Saga: There Are No Accidents

The recent Reality Steve lawsuit coverage I revived is happening by sheer coincidence in between seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”. In many ways, I wish this sprung up during a fully cranked up season of one of the “Bachelor” shows. We could reach more people that way and this story could potentially insert itself into the mainstream media. But it happened when it happened for a reason none of us can really fathom at this time.

The “Bachelor” producers started this conflict up for their own petty, fear-based reasons. How can one lone Texas blogger be such a threat to a multi-million dollar Hollywood operation?  It is entirely about their fear, paranoia, and pettiness. If they didn’t fear Carbone, this lawsuit would have never happened. They would have swatted or waved him away like an annoying mosquito.

ABC Network and the “Bachelor” producers may have previously dismissed him but this lawsuit validates the notion that Carbone is way more significant than they ever admitted. The lawsuit validates Carbone’s power and influence in a dramatic way. The fact that he gets more Internet traffic and followers than the “official” Bachelor show pages and accounts is telling. The “official” pages are run by corporate drones that have no clue or personality. They think that if they build it, people will come.  That is so untrue on the Internet.

Hollywood as a whole continues to be fearful of the Internet. They still don’t understand it beyond advertising their shows and throwing money at problems. They hire technically capable people that know how to create pretty websites but have no personality, presence, spirit, or personal expression. They have no clue on creating online communities or developing a readership. People may enjoy the shows but corporate drones don’t have a clue of how to interact with their fan base or cultivate a following.  Successful bloggers do.

Hollywood cannot control people as they once did. As a result, there is fear of the power of one man, one voice, and one blogger.  All this fear and disdain over someone who dares to tell and report the truth about a highly-edited, highly-distorted reality show in an entertaining way.

Some of you might have heard the saying, “There are no accidents.” I have embraced this idea because I find it helpful in my own life.

Let me say upfront that I am not a religious person but I do consider myself a spiritual person. I believe that there is a Higher Power greater than what we can ever see, know, or understand. For people of Christian faith, they call him, God. The American Indians call it “The Great Spirit”. People of Buddhism faith, call him Buddha. There are other equivalents depending on one’s religious/spiritual background and upbringing but hopefully you the spirit (no pun intended) of what I am saying.

This means that circumstances and events don’t happen without a Higher reason.  There are always life lessons to be learned and insights to be gained. We can choose to listen and learn from them when it happens or we can dismiss them and suffer the consequences for not doing so.

Aside from ABC network and the “Bachelor” producers’ motivations for the lawsuit, there are also reasons why this is happening to Carbone.  The naysayers and critics will say that he brought this upon himself and deserves what is happening to him. And they would be correct but NOT for the reasons they think.

The people who have been drawn into the “Reality Steve Lawsuit Saga” are involved for a reason. Certainly, there is a degree of drama involved with watching this unfold.

However, Carbone, out of everyone, has the most at stake. Most of us are simply spectators. He has a lot of personal reflection to do because he is the center of this drama.  He has openly shared that he has experienced a wide range of emotions and this has been building over time.  This is normal for anyone going through the pressure of personal crisis and dramatic change. There is a deeper meaning and a greater life lesson for Carbone. This is a very critical time in his life.

Carbone isn’t “just” a “spoilers” entertainment reporter and commentator. That is what he does now but he is destined to do and accomplish much more in his life. He just doesn’t know what it might be yet. Carbone has not yet stepped into the full potential of his personal power. In many ways, this is a test of his character and resolve. There is far more to Carbone than meets the eye. There is clearly an inner conflict going on within him. You can see it on his face when he does the video blogs.

Carbone has far more power and influence than he truly realizes. There is no way in hell a person can continue garnering the readership he has built without some level of personal power.  Certainly, reporting “spoilers” in 2009 gave him the opportunity to explode into mainstream media. But let us not forget his early years of his email reports before he launched his website.  When he launched his website in 2004, his following grew gradually until he hit a “tipping point” in 2009 when spoilers began “falling into his lap”. It was the culmination and reward for the work he had done years earlier. (I highly recommend people read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Tipping Point” that discusses the “tipping point” phenomena.)

It took only two years of crossing the “tipping point” that Hollywood felt threatened by the power and influence of Carbone. Carbone now needs to own up this power and learn how to channel it in a way that will overcome this lawsuit. His legal team is one component of this fight. But there are other fronts to fight back on as all of us now know.

As of this writing, a Canadian article and a Squidoo lens have picked up on the revival of the Reality Steve Lawsuit story . This is just the beginning. When the new “Bachelorette” season debuts, traffic to RealitySteve.com will surge. And so will the awareness of the “Reality Steve Lawsuit Saga”.

Carbone continues to hold back but he has begun to slowly come out by acknowledging the issue more instead of hiding from it. He is asking for help from those who want to help instead of shying away from the help. He is slowly getting the word out of the growing support for his cause.

One thought I am always reminded of is that “Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to overcome fear.” Day by day, it appears that Carbone is exercising his “courage muscle”. The more a person flexes and uses it, the stronger it becomes.

Years ago, I was introduced to Ilya Prigogine’s Theory of Dissipative Structures. It is a physics theory used to analyze and explain complex systems in nature. It is used frequently in studying chemical and biological systems. The theme of pressure and irreversibility of change are important components of the theory.

In simpler terms, the idea is if enough energy and pressure is placed upon a complex system (such as a person and their brain cells), that the system will reorganize itself in such a way that it is irreversible and no longer the same.

As it relates to people and behavior, this is why people who have been through personal trauma and crisis (emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually) become very different people afterwards.  Their brain has been altered. People often become better and stronger for the experience.

This is why most “normal” people are in awe and amazement when handicapped, “disadvantaged”, or underdogs overcome their crushing odds to create strength, achievement, and success in their lives.  These people can’t shy away from the circumstances in their lives. They are forced to live and deal with it. The very energy and pressure they were forced to experience and endure in their lives are the very things that propelled them into achievement, strength, and success.

It will be interesting to watch how Carbone evolves in the weeks to come. As an advocate, I certainly hope he will continue to grow and evolve in an empowering way. But it is entirely his decision how and what he does. Whether he wanted to be part of this new reality show of his readership’s making (remember, I am only one of his readers in all this), “The Reality Steve Lawsuit Saga” is here to stay.