05-14-2017, 08:22 AM
This also reflects (in general) the scarcity of benign, child-friendly media for children. Yes, small children did get Sesame Street, but that largely as a replacement (if an improvement) over Captain Kangaroo. At that, Sesame Street reflected a culture that tried to rush children to adulthood -- at least in teaching certain basics. The '60s is also the end of the line for clubhouse-style local programming, TV stations replacing those with adult-oriented variety shows like The Mike Douglas Show. It wasn't bad TV, unlike some of the bilge now available, but it had no child appeal.
Maybe it is a mere coincidence that Disney did have 'princes' (Mowgli in The Jungle Book and the young Arthur in The Sword and the Stone) in the 1960s -- but that was the end of the line for flattering images of children. With those boys, brute force mattered either for bare survival or for getting ahead. There was nothing effeminate about the 'man-cub' or the future legendary king.
The optimum during the Boom Awakening would have been to let children be children.
X children tended to grow up harder and more cynical than older or younger cohorts. As adults, X would pay for that.
Maybe it is a mere coincidence that Disney did have 'princes' (Mowgli in The Jungle Book and the young Arthur in The Sword and the Stone) in the 1960s -- but that was the end of the line for flattering images of children. With those boys, brute force mattered either for bare survival or for getting ahead. There was nothing effeminate about the 'man-cub' or the future legendary king.
The optimum during the Boom Awakening would have been to let children be children.
X children tended to grow up harder and more cynical than older or younger cohorts. As adults, X would pay for that.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.