Archive for October 2012
He-Man and the Masters of Morals
0Tuesday, October 23, 2012 by Sanket Chaukiyal
As a species, humans have a lot to be proud
of; we have built great cities, crossed the oceans, soared through the skies and
ascended into the heavens. With the beginning of each new generation there is
an evolution in its technology, culture and society. It is a welcome change but
all is not well. Sadly, as we advance in our civilisation we regress in moral
character. A lot has changed negatively and we have turned a blind eye to it.
Gone are the days where one would think twice before uttering an unacceptable
"bad" word (not counting accepted teenage slang) or consider it the
greatest of sins to talk back at his parents or teachers. Most friendships are
treated as an artificial relationship which is to be maintained only for gain.
We do not think twice before harming others for our profit. Violence suddenly
becomes "cool". Crime is at an all-time high because people have lost
the little voice in their heads that says "do the right thing". Where
has the innocence of humanity gone?
Where did we go wrong?
 |
| He-Man |
The answer to it does not lie in blaming
the changing culture or society values but merely looking at our childhood and
recognising what has changed. It is often too difficult for parents to spend a
lot of time with their children due to a lot of work load and hence, the idiot
box becomes the part time nanny. The innocent minds of children can be easily
influenced and they are on the constant lookout for an adult role model to
imitate which is mostly their parents with whom they spend most of their time.
However in this day and age, the role model is who and what they see on the
television.
The content on television now has
drastically changed from what we had in our childhood. The issue is not the
abundance of abusive language or violence on TV but the lack of moral lessons
in them. Cartoons are not what they were back in the good old days where they
provided good entertainment as well as a valuable life lesson. Taking the
example of He-Man (the original one), it was a cartoon which provided a good
dose of entertainment as well as a meaningful life lesson from He-Man towards the end of
the show, which we were all too happy to listen to because it came from our
hero. The best part was that these lessons/advices were based on what happened in
the cartoon and hence it was an advice with an example. A few of these
lessons/advices were:-
- There are no shortcuts in life.
- Have courage to do the right thing.
- Don't accept money food or toys from strangers and never go away with them. Terrible things have happened to those kids who did(so just walk away).
- Brains are better than brawns.
- Think of your own safety because people wont be there to keep you safe always(crossing guards, traffic police).
- Drugs don’t make your problems go away. They just create more.
- Courage means saying no to something you know is wrong. Courage means having principles and sticking to them.
- Sometimes there may be a problem that may be too big for you to handle, there are people out there that care about you. Tell them about your problems and they will help you.
- Television is not the only way to be entertained. There is reading too and there are good books at the library.[Regarding this last point. I bet no television show would tell their audience to go read instead of watch television. Now this is what I call doing the right thing.]
Alas, the golden age of entertainment with
character did not last long. Principles and values took a back seat to profit
and eventually led to entertainment without morals. As a result, people lost
out on the healthy dosage of principles at their childhood and led to failed
judgements between right and wrong in the future. There is no need of
entertainment with morals for adults who are mature enough to think for
themselves but the delicate minds of children need the conditioning to make
them better people as adults. With the demise of He-Man and the likes, the
angel on the shoulder was soon to follow.
Category alternative theory, children and television, He-Man, moral regression, television effects
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