Nigel Thornberry and The Puerilation of America
How the "kid-centric" atmosphere of the 1990s contributed to our current decline
In case you were unaware, I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid. I also watched a lot of nature shows on Animal Planet, National Geographic, etc. The Wild Thornberrys on Nickelodeon was the best of both worlds, really. It was a cartoon that followed the adventures of the Thornberrys as they traveled the world filming wildlife documentaries.
The stories generally revolved around Eliza Thornberry, the Thornberrys’ impetuous twelve-year-old daughter, who had been granted the ability to communicated with animals by an African shaman. Most episodes featured a plot where Eliza would befriend an animal and subsequently find herself in mortal peril because she had ignored the advice of her elders and/or her chimpanzee companion, Darwin.
I found out very recently that The Wild Thornberrys was originally pitched as a show about Eliza’s father, Nigel, an adventurer who had the unique ability to talk to animals. I think I would have rather enjoyed that; in fact I would probably still enjoy it as an adult and it made me realize something about the shows that I watched in 90’s and early 2000’s: they are very child-centric. This is a contributing factor in what I call the “puerilation” of society in America today.
Let me explain. These shows, like The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, Dexter’s Lab, Hey Arnold and many others sort of treat the children as the real innovators and geniuses and often (not always) casts adults as incompetent, stodgy killjoys, or simply idiots - especially the father figures. It was a very common trope at that time and continues on. It has now born fruit in my generation and the next one; we now have a large group of adults who are emotionally and intellectually children.
I think you know what I mean - whining and crying when they don’t get their way, making ridiculous demands, screaming when they get offended by something that someone else says or does that may not have had any ill-intent behind it, the ever expanding list of “identities” to choose from, which everyone must now “affirm”. I could go on, but I won’t. This is not the behavior of a well-formed adult, but rather a child.
I’m not blaming the cartoons alone for what’s happening - that would be overly simplistic and ironically, childish. It would be the same as the people in the 1980s who blamed the rise in Heavy Metal for social ills. I watched them, I turned out okay, more or less. But as I’ve said before, the media we consume forms us in ways we may not fully understand. So while they are not “only” factor, they contributed to our state of degradation.
It is a fact that the books and TV shows of prior decades were more interested in preparing children for adulthood than “affirming” children’s identities or choices. They were about being good citizens, growing up and making the choice to live as an adult - to put away childish things and embrace personal responsibility.
The only way back from this is to simply stop participating in it. Stop giving money and attention to media that celebrates puerile attitudes, and start giving money and attention to media that celebrates good moral values, respect and personal responsibility. Reclaim media from previous generations, and fund artists and writers like myself who are creating media that celebrates personal responsibility and maturity.
You can buy my popular sword and sorcery novellas now! Available on Amazon. Click the image below to get yours!
