Where we went wrong
A friend's son celebrated his birthday today, and a late-day report from his dad tells of how part of the late-day festivities involved watching some Johnny Quest cartoons ('64 vintage, of course) from a DVD set, which his wife noted had to be the "ultimate boy's cartoon." Along the way he also mentioned how the kids don't seem to have the stomach these days for much birthday cake. When we were kids a birthday cake would easily be half-gone after just the first wave of attack, but these days and these kids they barely make a dent.
During a quick reply I noted: I think this is where we lost the battle for the future we were supposed to have. We grew up in the '60s, when the year 2000 held Moon cities and rocket packs. The '60s, when man started the decade aiming for the Moon and ended it reaching there. We had cartoons like Johnny Quest, and there was sugar in everything. Even the astronauts were supercharged with a Tang buzz. Now the kids are having everything triple-filtered in their caloric and cultural diet, and there's no zoom left. Our futures have been screwed by whole grain goodness and girls getting equal time in cartoons.
I don't believe the culture ever recovered from the horrors of the '70s, ranging from The Funky Phantom, Captain Caveman & the Teen Angels and Pebbles & Bamm Bamm. Looking back on these - from as safe a distance as possible - I'm amazed we survived at all. Indeed, I have to wonder... did we?
I need to find stronger meds or I'm never going to get to sleep tonight...
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Comments
I'm sure much the same's been expressed by many other bloggers, though not necessarily with the same frame of reference. I know there are people 10-20 years younger than I who look at GI Joe and Thundercats cartoons as something of a pinnacle -- we all tend to overvalue our own vintage.
As a child raised in the thick of 60s ad culture and cartoons, though, with the space race in full swing we were raised with different expectations, I think, than kids who came along a little later.