NationStates Jolt Archive

There's a nice article in Wired today:

The Culture War

How new media keeps corrupting our children.

US senator Charles Schumer says some videogames aimed at kids "desensitize them to death and destruction." But dire pronouncements about new forms of entertainment are old hat. It goes like this: Young people embrace an activity. Adults condemn it. The kids grow up, no better or worse than their elders, and the moral panic subsides. Then the whole cycle starts over. Here's how the establishment has greeted past scourges.

Novels
"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?"
- Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790

The Waltz
"The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous inter*twining of the limbs, and close com*pressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was con*fined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion."
- The Times of London, 1816

Movies
"This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood ... Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the 'moving pictures.'"
- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

The Telephone
"Does the telephone make men more active or more lazy? Does break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?"
[I]- Survey conducted by the Knights of Columbus Adult Education Committee, San Francisco Bay Area, 1926

Comic Books
"Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child's life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children ... All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!"
- Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Rock and Roll
"The effect of rock and roll on young people, is to turn them into devil worshippers; to stimulate self-expression through sex; to provoke lawlessness; impair nervous stability and destroy the sanctity of marriage. It is an evil influence on the youth of our country."
- Minister Albert Carter, 1956

Videogames
"The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it's making the difficult job of being a parent even harder ... I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control."
- US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/war.html

Not a sensational new insight, but at least a nice collection of quotes. :)

"The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous inter*twining of the limbs, and close com*pressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was con*fined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion."
- The Times of London, 1816
yep, sounds like my grandpa. Did you know I got repremanded in church for going to prom? (apparently only sluts dance)

yep, sounds like my grandpa. Did you know I got repremanded in church for going to prom? (apparently only sluts dance)

Really? Oh my goodness....so why does my sons C of E school have a leavers disco? Which the Vicar attends...

Well, I suppose you could say the media is corrupting our children, though not in the way normally thought. One could argue that reality TV, pop music, etc. constitute a definite dumbing down of society. Nonetheless, I agree. Don't hate videogames because they're supposedly desensitizing children to violence (isn't that a good thing for Republicans, having children ready to fight in wars?). Hate them because they're clichéd, derivitive of other, better videogames, and so addicting. Damn, I want those 1000 hours of my life back.

Really? Oh my goodness....so why does my sons C of E school have a leavers disco? Which the Vicar attends...
probably because they aren't Southern Baptist? it's still "frowned upon" to have dancing at a Southern Baptist wedding.

That's why children should be thoroughly and completely corrupted at home. Then, when they go out into the world, nothing will cause them much damage. They might even inflict some of their own!

I read the thread title as 'How the media keeps corrupting our children'. That would make a far better article.

Ah, corruption! Doesn't it smell good? :)

probably because they aren't Southern Baptist? it's still "frowned upon" to have dancing at a Southern Baptist wedding.

Yeah, my stepmother is baptist. Needless to say she's not supposed to dance.

Other reason why dancing is "forbidden":

Directly leads to achohol consumption.
It's the Devils work(I heard somebody say this actually).
Leads directly to sex.
Etc.

yep, sounds like my grandpa. Did you know I got repremanded in church for going to prom? (apparently only sluts dance)

At least you had your upper arms covered then. My wife once got thrown out of a (RC) church fro wearing short sleeves.

Back to the point of the thread:
How nice it must be to be able to blame something else whenever you fail, like in not teaching your kids right from wrong. It has been going on for centuries.

One way of looking at it was that every generation was right, but our standards are getting progresively lower. Think about that one.

One way of looking at it was that every generation was right, but our standards are getting progresively lower. Think about that one.
Alternatively you coud say that are standards have stayed the same, just the degree of hypocrisy is getting lower (but has not reached zero yet).

Standards are not the same. Society is getting progresively amoral. That's clear enough. This doesn't neccesarily mean that people are becoming evil, just that it's harder to judge whether or not they are.

There's a nice article in Wired today:


Not a sensational new insight, but at least a nice collection of quotes. :)

Thanks for posting this, I know a few people who will get kick out of it...

Yeah, my stepmother is baptist. Needless to say she's not supposed to dance.

Other reason why dancing is "forbidden":

Directly leads to achohol consumption.
It's the Devils work(I heard somebody say this actually).
Leads directly to sex.
Etc.

you know why southern baptists don't have sex standing up right?




someone might think they are dancing. LOL

At least you had your upper arms covered then. My wife once got thrown out of a (RC) church fro wearing short sleeves.


LOL, I got thrown out of church for listening to secular music. They found my beach boys CD. (at least they didn't find the Korn CD that was also in my car, I am scared to think what would have happened. LOL)

Standards are not the same. Society is getting progresively amoral. That's clear enough. This doesn't neccesarily mean that people are becoming evil, just that it's harder to judge whether or not they are.

Victorian ankle-hiding is nothing to do with morals. I think you might also mean immoral rather than amoral.

Immoral = BDSM with nuns, whilst eating veal from the calf you just killed with a pencil.

Amoral = Killing people with AIDS to stop the disease's spread.

yep, sounds like my grandpa. Did you know I got repremanded in church for going to prom? (apparently only sluts dance)

Apparently I'm a slut. :)

Victorian ankle-hiding is nothing to do with morals. I think you might also mean immoral rather than amoral.

Immoral = BDSM with nuns, whilst eating veal from the calf you just killed with a pencil.

Amoral = Killing people with AIDS to stop the disease's spread.


I do mean Amoral. Victorian ankle-hiding is morals: they considered it wrong (immoral) to show excesive skin. Amoral simply means without morals. As in your example, you can't decide whether something is right or wrong, and there are more and more things to which that applies. Like abortion, gay marriage etc.

LOL, I got thrown out of church for listening to secular music. They found my beach boys CD. (at least they didn't find the Korn CD that was also in my car, I am scared to think what would have happened. LOL)

I suppose they wouldn't care for the Red Hot Chili Peppers either?

*pouts*

I really have to wonder what they'd say to negro spirituals (or anything similar)... but kicking out beach boys is criminal.

I suppose they wouldn't care for the Red Hot Chili Peppers either?

*pouts*

For some reason, Nine Inch Nails are coming to mind here. Specifically the song "Closer." Hehehe...

I really have to wonder what they'd say to negro spirituals (or anything similar)... but kicking out beach boys is criminal.
we sing black gospels, but anyway, I think that they didn't like me to begin with (I was "the weird girl" at that church, you know the one with blue hair and friends with peircings)

my new church doesn't really care so much, so that's good.

we sing black gospels, but anyway, I think that they didn't like me to begin with (I was "the weird girl" at that church, you know the one with blue hair and friends with peircings)

my new church doesn't really care so much, so that's good.

Just don't tell them about posting on NS. Once they see the type of thing that goes on here they'll immediately declare you a heretic and start a petition to the Pope to get you excommunicated.

Just don't tell them about posting on NS. Once they see the type of thing that goes on here they'll immediately declare you a heretic and start a petition to the Pope to get you excommunicated.
can't be exommunicated, don't believe in it.

anyway, it's not an issue at the "new church". ;)

Leads directly to sex.

Directly? I must be doing someting wrong...

Got any good ones on RPGs?

Other than the Chick Tract - I know a guy who deconstructed it on his website.

I do mean Amoral. Victorian ankle-hiding is morals: they considered it wrong (immoral) to show excesive skin. Amoral simply means without morals. As in your example, you can't decide whether something is right or wrong, and there are more and more things to which that applies. Like abortion, gay marriage etc.
thats not a lack of morals, that is a change of morals. We no longer consider flesh to be disgraceful. that isn't a lack of morals.

Just don't tell them about posting on NS. Once they see the type of thing that goes on here they'll immediately declare you a heretic and start a petition to the Pope to get you excommunicated.
oh i dont think that southern baptists talk to the pope. not since they decided that he is the antichrist.

That's why children should be thoroughly and completely corrupted at home. Then, when they go out into the world, nothing will cause them much damage. They might even inflict some of their own!
That's my theory. I'd rather my daughter learn how to get drunk in my presence than in the presence of her dumbass friends. She's going to do it eventually, so I might as well ease the pain somewhat.

LOL, I got thrown out of church for listening to secular music. They found my beach boys CD. (at least they didn't find the Korn CD that was also in my car, I am scared to think what would have happened. LOL)
One word--Exorcism. ;)

Just found another nice quote:



On comic magazines:

"Badly drawn, badly written and badly printed – a strain on the young eyes and young nervous systems – the effect of these pulp-paper nightmares is that of a violent stimulant. Their crude blacks and reds spoil a child's natural sense of color; their hypodermic injection of sex and murder make the child impatient with better, though quieter, stories. Unless we want a coming generation even more ferocious than the present one, parents and teachers throughout America must band together to break the comic magazine.”

May 8, 1940

One word--Exorcism. ;)
Imagine what could happen if someone waltzes through the church singing rock and roll-tunes while reading a comic book and using a cell phone to play videogames! The Horror! :eek:

Seriously though, I wasn't aware that the waltz had been so frowned upon in earlier days, but I can't say I'm surprised...

Yeah, my stepmother is baptist. Needless to say she's not supposed to dance.

Other reason why dancing is "forbidden":

Directly leads to achohol consumption.
It's the Devils work(I heard somebody say this actually).
Leads directly to sex.
Etc.
And we all know that dancing is nothing more than a vertical expression for a horizontal desire ;)