in praise of subversive children's television

[sophiaserpentia]

So, I used to laugh at preachers who made outrageous claims that the makers of children's television are putting in messages in support of the "gay agenda."

Okay, I still laugh at them, actually. But now I'm beginning to wonder if they're not onto something -- or rather, I wonder if the memetic-replication subroutines which have co-opted their brains haven't detected a threat to their well-being.

If you want your meme to really take, you have to get it in there early and often. It also helps if you can keep out the kind of instruction that allows people to see through shallow memetic viruses (such as the kind which depend on artificial deficiency for its survival).

The stakes are pretty high. It's not just a matter of buying into American Protestant Christianity; the domestication and control memeplex I have taken to calling (following the example of Philip K. Dick) the Empire, depends on a population made up of people whose brains have been conditioned for a life of sheep-hood.

Therefore one of the most subversive teachings I can imagine is the central premise of Thelema -- "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." It is therefore, to say the least, not insignificant when this is quoted on a childrens' television show.

Which I saw last night on "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy."

Comments

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

I do hear what Aaron is listening to on a subconscious level and sometimes things jump out at me. One theme I see over and over in kid's TV is a anti-authoritarianism. The adults are by turns: stupid, clueless, mean, completely unable to listen to the kids, or obsessed with their jobs or keeping the house spotless. Often at the end of shows like "Fairly odd parents" they end up apologizing to Timmy(?) for having made the stupid mistake they made this episode.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

One of the things I see over and over which bothers me is the demonization and labelizing simultaneously of both the "popular" and the "nerd" kids in the stupider cartoons that don't think of plots. Shows like Recess seem to be where one group of the "oddball" kids battles the frou-frou and apparently "must be brainless if they are good-looking" supposedly popular kids. And that's the plot. Weak. There are other shows with the same vapid thing going, I think my mind doesn't want to remember them, either.

Invader Zim sorta battles Dib but its like not serious, its more like "We are Nemesises!" and kinda respectful in a way.. and besides its a genius versus an alien with lots of gadgets who wants to destroy humanity. So then the "kid" versus kid thing is funny. Even the teacher in that though really totally horrible to children has more than one thing going on.. you don't know if she's human, and she saved the world from being overtaken by the Lice Queen. Who can't like her after that??!

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

That's what I generally call "Nickelodeon thinking," since Nick used to run six-hour blocks of kids' sitcoms where the average adult IQ was about 4. True, it's a kid's-eye view of the world: adults care about things that aren't important, make up stupid rules that don't make sense, and don't give kids the attention they deserve.

But it also reinforces the idea that adults can't be trusted and aren't worth listening to. I think a steady diet of a single message can cause it to be imprinted on the psyche, and it's one more reason parents need to monitor the influence TV has on their children and act quickly to point out and neuter bad memes.

One thing my parents did right was to inoculate me against television commercials by pointing out the different types of advertising pitches. Memes are like gneechees: give 'em a good hard look and they're gone.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

"But it also reinforces the idea that adults can't be trusted and aren't worth listening to."

Unfortunately, I would have to agree that in most cases that is absoolutely correct.

"One thing my parents did right was to inoculate me against television commercials by pointing out the different types of advertising pitches."

I've been doing that lately, particularly with Army commercials - you know they play thjem on the cartoon channel? The fuckers...

And on "Artificial deficiency"...

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

http://www.sumeria.net/earth/popecology.html

A bit of a different tangent from what you were talking about but still relevant, I think.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

One thing I thought of when Dr. Dobson (advocate of "Tough Shit, Kid, We Don't Care, Love" where parents are encouraged to lock kids out if they come home past curfew) went on an anti-Spongebob spree was the fact the really stupid video used "We are Family" as the background song. That song WAS used in the movie "The Birdcage". Maybe that movie is all Dobson thinks about when he hears that song, and it just may be possible that's what thought was in the mind of those producing that video.. if that's behind the "outrage", no one is saying that up front.

I don't think "Billy and Mandy" are subconscious.. they also aren't really very small kid suitable, sorta like "Invader Zim" which is great, but maybe not for the younger ones. But yeah, when Mandy says that.. it definately caught my attention awhile back. Is there are little .mov been made of that?

[sable-twilight.livejournal.com]

The character Mandy just rocks.

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

It's always nice when something sneaks past the censors. I was always amazed at what they got away with on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Which reminds me, Denice remembered to tape that kids show that got censored because it had (gasp!)lesbians on it. It's a PBS show, made in Boston (of course) and WGBH aired it (of course) but most other PBS stations caved in to the bad guys. I'm going to borrow the tape from her.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

Aaron likes Postcards from Buster - we should let him watch it!

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yay! We can have a little viewing party up in the parlor!

[cullent.livejournal.com]

There's a public showing of it in DC this month
What: ³Postcards from Buster: Sugar Time!²

When: Saturday, March 5th at 11:00AM

Where: Church of the Pilgrims 2201 P Street, NW
(three blocks from Dupont Circle Metro Station)

After the viewing, meet the Hinesburg, VT family, who are
featured in the episode & participate in an afternoon of children's
activities, games and snacks.

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

That's great!

[sammhain.livejournal.com]

I've seen that episode actually, I still tell everyone about it, incidenttally there is a pretty huge discordian influence in certain of the episodes as well. Certain disney channel shows and made for tv movies also contain those things which always amuses me. I've heard references to the church of the subgenius, seen what I swear was the unicursal hexagram, as well as a variety of plots where people turn to the occult to better their lives and come to termms with emotional blocks.

It's true what Madeline L'Engle said, when you want to write about things adults can't handle the best thing to do is write it for children.