From: ahn@pop.cis.yale.edu (Eugene R. Ahn)
Subject: It's you against the cultural elites!
Followup-To: alt.parents-teens
Organization: Yale University
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 05:15:36 GMT

What are the opinions of the people reading this newsgroup concerning the
new issue of cultural elitism? This is of immediate concern to any parent
who would like to believe they're teaching their children, and not
television, ads, music and movies. 

As an undergraduate senior, I feel cultural elitism is a legitimate concern
but a difficult topic to debate since there are so many facets to it. 

But one particular issue is the fact that the mass
communications/entertainment business is not something which parents often
push upon their children. I've heard parents say "I don't want my
son/daughter to be a singer (movie star, director, so on)" for whatever
reasons. There's some general perception of the entertainment business as
risky, decadent, and non-professional. 

As long as those views persist and parents discourage their children from
making those types of career choices, then the arts/entertainment industry
will be flooded with the cultural elites we have now. Since the industry is
indeed quite powerful in terms of shaping the nation, those who are
disadvantaged or wish a certain non-mainstream viewpoint to be heard
usually take up some form of public expression in the arts. 

And due to the inactive roles of "the family guard", Hollywood is marked by
an imbalance of liberal-minded directors, actors, screenwriters, and so
forth. This existing imbalance can perpetuate itself, by entrenching the
"subversive" label to the entertainment business. More parents may be
horrified to learn that their child wants to be a movie director. It's an
"un-professional, unstable, insecure" job, my parents would say. I had an
electric guitar, and they were afraid that I would love it so much that I
would become a guitarist, as if that were a bad thing in itself... 

Thus, the "family guard" hides its children from the "shadows" of
Hollywood, and the cultural elites become even more homogenous. 

Will there be a Jim Henson in the 90's? I don't think so. Not with the
trends I have seen. Do we forsee any future shows of inspired genius like
Sesame Street? Probably not.

THE KEY UNDERSTANDING THAT HAS TO BE ADOPTED HERE IS THAT THE
ENTERTAINMENT/MASS COMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS IS A MODE OF POWER. By
estranging your children from this mode of power, you are further pushing
the family towards extinction. It sounds rather crude, and I'm not
suggesting that we recruit our kids to be missionaries of the old values. I
am suggesting that parents should be more level-headed when a child desires
to enter the arts/entertainment.

Of course, one has to wonder why, for example, your kid may want to become
a rock star. In a way this whole desire may be the result of being
brainwashed by MTV images, and that this is the way to be respected and
cool. But nevertheless, you as parents are the main teachers of your
children when they are most impressionable. You have to learn to have faith
in that, have faith in your teachings, or not have faith in yourself.

--
Eugene "Mos Eisley" Ahn     ahn@suncis.cis.yale.edu
"What did you think of that reply?"
"No sir. I don't like it."
Newsgroups: alt.parents-teens