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It was bad enough when Dirty Harry served as an
exemplar, and our state legislature hopped on the bandwagon
by passing a Make my day
law.
Now Beavis and Butthead are role models as kids set
fires and torture cats. Or they watch a movie like The
Program,
and lie down in highways.
Attorney General Janet Reno has suggested government regulation if the producers don't set standards.
However, I don't envy anyone who has to define which programming will encourage stupid and dangerous behavior, and deserves regulation, as opposed to the wholesome stuff that's just informative or entertaining.
For instance, everyone raved about A River Runs
through It.
Good family entertainment, inspirational,
lots of nature, etc.
But a third-grade teacher said her pupils were most influenced by the scene of stuntmen going over a waterfall in a canoe. The kids wanted to try the same thing on the Arkansas River, which flows right through town.
She's still not sure that her students fully grasped her
explanations about the differences between Hollywood rivers
and real rivers. During warm weather, I worried all the
time that some of my 8-year-olds would try the Arkansas in
an open canoe. They talked about it often. I just hope
they've forgotten all about it by spring.
During my own boyhood in Evans, on the banks of the South Platte, my friends and I speculated constantly about escaping from parents, school and straitjacket civilization in general by building a raft and floating away, swiping a chicken every now and again.
Bad influence, that Huckleberry Finn,
and Martha
said that in her Michigan girlhood, they went so far as to
build rafts and attempt their river. Fortunately, we
didn't know how to steer, so we never got more than 100
yards before we grounded and gave up. But there were kids
who drowned doing the same thing.
Go to any enduring work of fiction or film, and you'll find the same problem with bad examples. Anna Karenina carries on a scandalous affair and then throws herself under a train. Rhett Butler makes a fortune smuggling, and abandons Scarlett when she most needs him after the burning of Atlanta. Young Goodman Brown consorts with devil worshippers. Sgt. Alvin York betrays his pacifist heritage and slays Huns by the score, and who can ever forget the derring-do of Captain Blood?
Hollywood hasn't really changed. Novels and films cater to our fantasies, which are often violent, lurid, stupid, cruel and irresponsible.
But 35 years ago, Mom yelled at us for sword-fighting with sticks a la Errol Flynn. Today's mom is working hard to keep a roof over the family. It falls on third-grade teachers, and they know they can't do it themselves.
Until we figure out a way to change that, to give parents time to be parents, banning Beavis and Butthead won't help. Kids will just try something else, from some other source.
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