Imagine, if you will, a television character based on yours truly. He would, of course, be dashingly handsome. He’d be educated, funny and polite (and modest). He’d be frugal, a character trait the TV show’s writers would play up to hilarious effect.

Oh, and he’d also be portrayed as an oddball due to the fact he’s politically and morally conservative.

Just imagine all the jokes at my character’s expense. My co-stars would have a joke or two every episode about my refusal to sleep with my girlfriend before marriage. Or the way she and I lived in separate apartments, even though frugal me could save all sorts of rent money by asking her to move in with me. Or the way I — gasp — didn’t vote for Obama.

A character like mine would always be portrayed as abnormal. In fact, a character like mine would be so abnormal in Hollywood there is no way he’d be a regular cast member. No, he’d be a recurring character for a few episodes. A character who would date the female lead…until she found out how “crazy” he was.

So, this is my question: Does the entertainment industry (Hollywood, the media, etc.) simply portray society as it is, or how it thinks it should be?

Sadly, I think this is becoming a “chicken or the egg” issue. The society that is being portrayed in the entertainment industry is becoming more and more real. This is due, in large part, to how the entertainment industry portrays it.

Why? How? 1) Because the entertainment industry is overtly liberal, and 2) because people are sheep.

Most people don’t think for themselves. They go with the crowd. Just look at fashion through the years. The only reason bell bottoms in the 70s, big hair in the 80s and “grunge” in the 90s were wildly popular is because they were first mildly popular. If I told you that in three years people everywhere would be wearing snakeskin cowboy boots with swim trucks and turtleneck sweaters, you’d say I was crazy. But you would have said the same thing twenty years ago if I had predicted everyone would be dressing like lumberjacks come 1992. All I need are a few popular rock bands to wear my snakeskin/swimsuit/sweater ensemble idea and the sheep will come out in droves.

(Where was I going with this…? Oh yes, people go with the crowds.)

In short, most people like to fit in. They like to do what is normal. And if children aren’t taught what is “normal” by their parents, they are taught by their peers and by the entertainment industry. And those peers, too, in most cases, are taught by the entertainment industry.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us in a world where people are taught what is normal by what they see on television, in movies, and in magazines.

And what’s “normal” in such a world?

“Normal” is the producers of seemingly harmless shows like HGTV’s House Hunters choosing to follow the house-hunting adventures of unmarried or gay couples just as often, if not more often, than happily married couples.

“Normal” is the hilarious (and personal favorite) television comedy The Office having the cute, young couple Pam and Jim living together before they are married. And getting pregnant before they are married. And, at their wedding, having everyone trying to avoid letting Pam’s “old school”, “conservative” grandmother find out about such things because she just wouldn’t understand. And how the only character on the show who thinks the “living together” thing and the “having a kid” thing before marriage is wrong is Angela; who just happens to be humorless, mean spirited and — oh yes — a hypocrite since she had an affair with Dwight while engaged to marry Andy.

“Normal” is boys and girls growing up to believe that meeting, dating, getting married, THEN living together and having children (in that order) is something that went the way of the dodo.

Political leanings aside, look at me on paper. I’ve never been married. I have no kids. I have a good job. I’m educated. I have no criminal history. I’m awesome. And I’m not going to put the moves on a girl before I’ve put a ring on her finger. A majority of moms and dads out there would kill to have their daughter bring home a guy like me. It’s a dad’s dream for his little girl, right?

But we live in a world where a majority of young women dismiss guys like me because we are too old fashioned and, yes, abnormal.

Does that sound right to you? It doesn’t sound right to me.

Of course, what do I know?

I’m an oddball.