Culture War

Recently watching the History Channel I learned a little something about the rise and fall of the comic book industry. While this is not something I’d usually take an interest in, since I haven’t read a comic book in years, one thing caught my interest. That of a crusader.

In the early 1950s, a Dr Frederic Wertham went on a crusade against mass media, specifically comic books. After working with young people in juvenile facilities, he concluded that comic books warped the imagination of normal kids and severely damaged the socially vulnerable. He argued that Superman was like Nazi Germany’s SS, a ’subtle atmosphere of homo-eroticism’ pervaded the adventures of a mature Batman and a his young friend Robin and that Wonder Woman would turn our young impressionable girls into lesbians.

Any of this sound familiar yet? Think Teletubbies and Sponge Bob, rap videos and video games. The only difference with now and then is that parents listened to this doctor of psychiatry, even congressional panels were convened and the comic book industry never regained its former prominence. I’m not familiar with any of his writings so I can’t comment on whether I agree with him or not. But you got to admire the mettle of this man who believed children were being hurt and did something about it. So much so that he severely hurt an entire industry by hurting their bottom line, all because he thought it was hurting the children.

Over the years lots of people have come along and bemoaned the negative effects of mass media on children. There has been so much that I think people have become numb and immune to it. People are asking ‘what else will they tell us next is going to harm our kids?’ Besides its the kids from the 1950s that are now in charge and they won’t allow anyone to make them act like their parents did back then.

I do believe in some cases that it does affect children negatively especially if there’s no balance in the child’s life. But I believe the majority is not adversely affected specifically by mass media. Any craziness in the country cannot be attributed to any one thing, like mass media, but a combination of things. So a combination of things will also help to improve it. We must encourage our children, love them unconditionally, teach them values, to value life, ethics, in the hope that they will themselves pass on these values to the next generation. Is this all it will take, certainly not.