How the Media Corrupted Children Throughout History

(continued)

"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 intertwining of the limbs, and close compressure 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 confined 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

Heh, the Waltz. Can you imagine if one of those tightassed Englishmen took a trip nearly 200 years in the future to find our society and our "voluptuous intertwining of limbs?" Man, I'd totally build a time machine just to measure the length of the jaw drop. Then again, he might just shit his pants, and then I'd have crap to deal with. I suppose, though, that the Waltz wasn't exactly a fatal contagion; yet, then again, parents are saying the same thing today about bumpin' and grindin'. Is it any different? Of course not. Both methods of dancing were appalling to the society as a whole, and that's exactly why they spread like wildfire.

The movies attack was fairly routine. It mentioned God, oh I'm sorry "GOD" (in all capital letters), and it argued that only He knows how many people started their life of immorality and crime in the movie theatre. This scared reaction to change was expected, of course. My favorite was the publication from which the quote came:

- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

Cruelty to Children? Sure, Pootie Tang, Superbabies 2, From Justin to Kelly, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, You Got Served, and Big Momma's House 2, if shown to children, could be considered cruelty to children, but the better label is cruelty to everyone due to their collective nature as laughable insults to celluloid.

The better one was 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

Yes, that's right, the "sanctity of marriage." Man, America has a short memory. It seems that everything new and exciting seems to destroy the sanctity of marriage. Oh yes, and not to mention the 80% majority in this country of "devil worshippers." Honestly, though, that estimation isn't all that far from the truth. The majority of this country is worshipping what could be construed as the work of the devil: war.

And finally, video games:

"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

Blah, blah, blah, vote for me, blah blah blah. You're not the first one to use "outrageous" and "disturbing" and "children" and "innocence" in a sentence to describe some reaction-evoking social newcomer to society. Speaking of violence, the Bush administration members must have played a lot of video games as kids.

I'd still vote for Hillary, though. If making it tougher for a 13 year old to buy a video game with a central theme of blowing a person's head off is the worst we have to worry about in a president's motions for legislation, I think we're set.