Boo The Black Hats
Entry posted by caldrail
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I saw a mention earlier that there's been a call to ban 'cartoon' villains.
Pardon? Which idiot thought that one up? No doubt they're concerned that our little offspring will be irrevocably harmed by exposure to images of bad guys and grow up as adult Dick Dastardly's.
Children are not blank slates. However primitive and limited their experience of the world might be, they are born with a character of their own. Nature does this as a survival strategy. By including a diverse set of primal behaviour instincts, then a portion of the human herd will thrive in whatever enviroment they find themselves. So if killing, stealing, or helping old ladies across the road works best, then those instincts allow the herd to cope with policemen, irate householders, and modern traffic. Of course it also allows you to exploit any enviroment effectively and is one of the primary influences of evolution.
So why are cartoon villains so bad for us? They were after all dreamt up by adult humans, and are intended as a parody of real baddies in order to laugh at their inept villainy and enjoy their miserable or painful fate. many cartoons actually have a moralistic underlay, despite the penchant for extraordinary violence. So is it the violence thats wrong? I used to enjoy thiose Roadrunner and Tom & Jerry cartoons in my younger days. You never see those any more do you? Well, strangely enough, I haven't grown up to be a violent villain who regularly receives explosives in the post courtesy of Acme Inc.
The problem then lies not with cartoons or the imagery they present, but our own guidance of our children and the failure of society to instill moral behaviour in our young.
My belongings are vibrating and bouncing to the throb of the stereo downstairs, so if you'll excuse me, I'll just go down there and knock his block off. You may laugh and say the cartoons did affect me. I would argue I'm simply angry and following my aggressive instinct is nothing more than everyday human behaviour.
Or should we ban the evening news too, for fear that a terrorist will shown to our kids?
Question of the Week
Well the surveyor visited my home to decide how energy efficient it is. He asked me whether it gets cold. I looked at him straight and answered that it did, every winter, regularly as clockwork.
I don't think he understood the joke.
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