I saw a frightening children’s program today. A school was having a mock UN type of event. And an Iraqi girl had set up a display about Iraq. Someone had demolished the Iraqi display but no one knew who had done it. So students were being questioned by the principal while a bunch of kids sat in a room awaiting the results of the investigation. One girl was accused of having done the damage, not based on any evidence, but because she had joked about possibly declaring war on Iraq. Another kid was told that, “derogatory jokes are never acceptable.”
There was an Orwellian/ Soviet kind of feel to the whole thing. But basically the ’cool,’ thoughtful and incredibly caring adults were putting on treason trials of the kids to control their thoughts and feelings.
These attempts at thought and feeling control have been growing over the past few years. Now the CW has made it a part of Saturday morning children’s programming.
I guess it must require incredible insecurity to want to control the thoughts and feelings of everyone else. And it would be the ultimate tyranny.
