Folklore and Indoctrination
Folklore and Indoctrination (Part 1)
Popular media historiographies are conveyed to masses through a pipeline that reveals very little to the imagination of those intended to ingest its output. The most efficient method of mass presentation since the late 1950s has been to transmit such restrained idealisms via television which at that moment come to supplant movies and radio. Since the 1960s a strategic of broadcasting revised folklore and newly created animation intended to inculcate certain cultural biases into the psychic of the targeted audience has made their appearance on prime-time Saturday Morning television. Many of these same media characters are even now being revisited in cinematic production. However it’s the initial efforts of media producers to manipulate the minds of adults and children alike by the utilization of specific icons is the subject of this criticism. Major themes presented during the time period selected for my research tend to be contemporaneous with specific political and historical events and patterns that can be examined to reveal a degree of collaboration between elite figures in the high chambers of media production and governance in the United States. Such that, the intended effect of the mass presentation of these icons was to desensitize the audience to certain external acts (both military and political) and demonize certain characteristics of alien cultures, places and peoples. Then, preparing both participates in subsequent dubious [military] activities and the viewing public to proceed without adverse reaction. Over the course of time since the initial efforts of televised indoctrination, new methods of suffusion have been created, both analog and digital forms to serve the same purpose of propaganda and alienation. Those methodologies are selected to grasp and reconfigure the psyche of the targeted audience thru the promulgation of [color] coded arch types that reflect and impersonate naturally occurring phenomenon and produced a mindset conductive with the intensions of American hegemony and capitalist infiltration.
One particular iconic figure worth noting is the reptilian antagonist “The Grinch” of the cartoon movie, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” This fictional creature displays an obvious similarity with exceedingly undesirable elements found in the natural environment and persons of certain foreign cultures. Note that the Grinch’s unkempt demeanor, his slanted eyes and malicious verbalisms capture the imagination and then imprint a template that can aggravate existing prejudices. Its’ creator Theodor ‘Dr. Seuss’ Geisel manufactured the villainous malefactor to convey a certain character trait articulated by cultural prejudices and racial profiles. An examination of Geisel’s commercial cartoon production will reveal an intended motive for creating this demonizing arch villain, who along with a generation of like characters that appeared in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 70s in forms that were intended to create a given characteristic not too dissimilar to enemy combatants vivified during the cold war with communism and complement the commercial transformation of Southern Hemispheric horticultures and the subsequent conversion of their native vegetation into domesticated varieties of co modified crops. Geisel’s long career in media production pre-dated World War II and it is my theory that he was selected and later paired with prescreened individuals to execute a precise articulation in order to justify external political ambitions related to Geisel’s work. Similar themes and parallel characterizations that appeared in comic book publications were ultimately expropriated to other forms of mass media to further instill a pattern of polarization; good versus evil, wild versus domesticated, with subliminal suggestions that intensified the necessity for domestication, containment and/or extermination. My purpose is to highlight a common trait in certain media productions that were utilized as a method of indoctrination to selected groups who are neither conscious of the projected messages nor offended by adverse characterizations
Born in Springfield Massachusetts, Theodor Geisel was reared by parents whom both had careers in the creative arts. His father, a mechanical inventor, his mother wrote poetry. As an adolescent, Theodor dabbled in the cartoons as a child, drawing in his free time in notebooks and on scratch paper. Later on while doodling, drawing numerous characters in a notebook during class time, he was noticed by a classmate who suggested he try cartooning as an artistic professional. After a period of trial and error, Geisel emerged as a cartoonist for Standard Oil. There he created a protagonist [Grinch] that would remain in American fiction for decades and utilized to assist the distribution of a DDT-based insecticide called “Flit” a product of Stanco, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey. Flit would eventually become a character of its own, surpassing even the ambitions of Geisel. The toxic elixir became the solution to insects [mosquitoes] that menaced American homeowners. “Quick Henry the Flit,” was the tagline used to summons the DDT based elixir expended to neutralize those irritating bugs. Later on, a Korean War propaganda film highlighted Flit as a defoliate. In a YouTube retrospective now available on the internet, an USAF military plane with the Flit logo attached to the cockpit takes flight to spread its poisonous cargo unto the farm lands of Korea during that murderous conflict of the 1950s.
Geisel cartooning career had an interlude as an Army Commander where he supervised the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army during World War II, there he wrote several films including, “Our Job in Japan” and the series “Private Snafu,” an adult training film. The movie, Our Job in Japan, became the basis for “Designed for Death” a commercial feature film. One of Geisel’s cartoons depicted all Japanese as latent traitors. Also, he supported Japanese interment during the war, stating without reservation, “But right now, when the Japs are planting hatchets in our skull, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: “Brothers!” It is rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win we’ve got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left.”
There lays the underlining theory: “Grinch” is the living embodiment of an antagonist that was simultaneously a weed, that undesirable vegetation to be sprayed and defoliated by Flit (and later its’ cousin – Agent Orange) and also he’s an Oriental needing to be contained or exterminated. His adversaries in the movie, ”The Grinch who Stole Christmas,” are the “Whos” of Whoville, an idealized race of middle class – law abiding white citizens whom the Grinch harasses and oppresses unnecessarily. While a further examination of this theory is needed for a conclusive judgment, we can tally the numerous reoccurring racial symbols in the media characterized by heroes, goddesses, and do gooders. Such a theory needs deconstruction in order to achieve a full insight into the nature of overt racial indoctrination. Dr. Seuss’s 46 children books depict a variety of characters, some good, others bad, however, none more distinctive than The Grinch. The movie feature, broadcasted in prime time television, was coupled with a very selective narration, that began with:
“You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch
As slimy as an eel”
It continues,
“You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch
Brain full of spiders
Garlic in your soul”
With further denunciations,
“Termites in you smile
Seasick crocodile”
The demonizing theme song possesses stark indications that insects and reptiles are implicit to his very being; Grinch is oppressive and his life is purposeless. Drawn by Geisel’s precision guided hands he was rendered as a pot bellied and furry, bipedaling feline and he is exceedingly ugly for obvious purposes. The nearest appropriation of “The Grinch” in historical folklore is a character found in “The Encyclopedia of Mythological Creators and Demons” called, “Grindylow.” A monster in English folklore from Yorkshire, England, that is described as a “humanoid monster with excessively long arms and fingers.” However, it’s conceiveable that Greisel didn’t appropriate the Grindylow’s characteristics for his own works, yet the similarities are interesting.
CBS Television when broadcasting the movie in primetime accompanied it with music and narration. The famed horror movie star, Boris Karloff served as both the narrator and voice of The Grinch, adding to its already demonic character. This signifies a stark contrast to other television programs broadcasted during the Christmas holidays, most of which lack a contravening character or bad guy in their story line. Note that neither, “Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer,” nor “Frosty the Snowman,” nor even “Charlie Brown’s Christmas,” utilize an overly antagonizing personality. With the exception of the placement of a darker toned individual in Frosty the Snowman, depicting characteristics of an Italian or Jew, a commonality in many feature cartoons and the perennial Lucy in the Charlie Brown series, depicted as a Lesbian with abnormal strength for a female. However, one particular commonality found among most of the antagonist in feature films of that time period is the intensity of vivid colorization being well pronounced, with the darker hues given to the dumber more malicious characters. In the Grinch’s case, his exaggerated limbs and fingers resembling claws, his oval face dominated with huge red eyes and a deep lip line enabling a frown or smile whether needed. The Grinch greenish color is selected deliberately being that it is similar to the vegetation naturally occurring in the undomesticated environment. This color theme will reoccur in numerous animations and feature films. Casting that unique hue to several feature figures, including “The Hulk,” and Ben Grimm of the “Fantastic Four,” both of whom are muscular, inarticulate brutes who supplement a team of refined and intelligent whites. The Hulk and Ben Grimm present a vivid contrast to their urbane and educated comrades as they trod in unison to combat crime and bring law and order to chaotic situations.
I suggest a theory that the intended purpose of CBS Television, a subsidiary of Westinghouse-a major defense contractor, for broadcasting The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was to vivify Vietnamese, who resemble the Grinch racially and needed to be exterminated in warfare. Also to implore the necessity for defoliation of Vietnamese jungles and crop land. The defoliation was done while the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) was promoting the controversial “Green Revolution,” which entailed the conversion of millions of acres of wild vegetation to orderly rows of farmable crops in countries in the Third World. Note that the timeline partially fits; America introduces DDT based herbicides into Southeast Asia in 1961 and subsequently U.S. Army ground troops make their initial appearance in 1965. “The Grinch That Stole Christmas,” made its debut broadcast in 1966. The “Green Revolution” was the nickname of a mega project undertaken by USAID to promote petroleum based fertilizers and herbicides, like Flit, in the Third World. US based oil and agribusiness companies [Standard Oil] were the primary distributors of these synthetic substances. Also, worth noting that Standard Oil also supplied the primary component for the chemical incendiary, Napalm, which was widely used in the Asian theatre of war on several occasions, starting in Japan during those murderous bombing raids in WWII, then in Korean and subsequently Vietnam.
These methods of race based social engineering were to be put into practice in numerous other places too. In Puerto Rico the USAID sponsored an involuntary sexual sterilization program that required the native Latino women under go to surgical procedures. Also many of those women were used as ‘Guinea Pigs’ to test experimental birth control drugs. Over one third of the sexually mature female population underwent procedures to prevent child birth. At that time, American leaders feared a population explosion of ‘undesirables’ that would eventually create the foundations of global revolution. The darker skinned, non-English speaking populations constituted a menace that had to be retracted in order to preempt any disruptions to the steady flow of profits. In 1977, Dr Richard T Revehaul, US AID’s Population Officer in Puerto Rico suggested, “that if U.S. goals were met, one fourth of the world’s women would be sterilized to prevent revolution that would interfere with the financial interest of multinational corporations.” It is this process of elimination that originated with the stereotyping of certain groups deemed potentially hostile to the steady flow of profits. Seemingly, the partial solution was to broadcast numerous images of recalcitrant characters that inculcated a belief system in select audiences that unfit racial groups required containment and or elimination.
The imagery created in children’s literature passes on to television, then to cinema as features of a reality to be imposed on adolescent minds. Characters such as the “Wicked Witch of the East” in the movie “The Wizard of Oz” or the ‘Uncontrollable Hulk’ of comic book fame, served a specific unacknowledged purpose, yet vital as a mechanism of thought control. In the outset of “The Wizard of Oz” our virgin mistress, Dorothy, is casted into oblivion from her native Kansas by the violent uncontrollable winds of nature where she lands into a neatly manicured wonderland called “Oz.” Young and beautiful, Dorothy however is lost and confused, in desperate need of a chaperone, who conveniently descends from heaven in the person of the good [and white] “Witch of the West”-- the Occident. To her horror, Dorothy is confronted by the “Wicked Witch of the East” – the Orient, who incidentally is vivid green. Notice that the Witch of the West is actually the “Virgin Mary,” who descends from heaven to assist Dorothy in her earthly endeavors, while her greenish counterpart is nothing more than demised, “Fertility Goddess,” of antiquity, her dress never separates from the ground where she was spawn, however the “Good Witch” of the West is adorned in a simmering pink lace custom fit gown, angelic in its contorts with wings attached to the sleeves. By contrast, her counterpart is ugly, oppressive, and ruthless, just as in the cast of the Grinch, a psychopath who needs to be constrained, yet in the evil witch’s case she is finally murdered, however accidently, by Dorothy. And much to the delight of her slavish eves, the Munchkins, who rejoice spontaneously.
The subsequent revelry after Dorothy’s unintended “Coup de tat” was no less than that for a coronation, with joyous singing of praise for Dorothy, coupled with a parade of newly liberated Munchkins who follow Dorothy’s horse drawn stagecoach. Finally she is presented with an official proclamation from Munchkins that certify the sanctity of the Wicked Witch’s death. Validating not only her murder, but the transition of authority from Dark Green to Whiteness or wildness to domestication, which validates the righteousness of “chaos to order,” and then partially recreates the ancient myth of Marduk, the Babylonian God, who establishes order by killing Tiamat, the feminine dragon of primordial chaos, subsequently Marduk establishes a new code of obedience based on patriarchal values. Author and Historian, Lucy Wyatt wrote in her book, “Approaching Chaos,” about the legacy of the transformation resulting from the demonization of the “Greenish” archetype. She state that, “In taking over these [temples] sites Christianity purposefully destroyed the respect that the old religion had for the forces of nature. The derogatory use of the word pagan itself meant “country dweller” or “bumpkin.” Thus the Church transformed the Greek god of nature Pan, into the emblem of the devil which his cloven hooves and his horns. The ‘Green Man,’ with his mouth spouting leaves and branches craving of which one can occasionally find hidden away in medieval churches, became a subversive image. The Church wanted to disconnect us from nature.”
Another set of characters in contemporary media came to exhibit a peculiar voracity worth analyzing. They’re the movie character, “The Hulk” and football legend, Ray Lewis, formerly of the Baltimore Colts. Recalled that neither of this two men can seemingly control themselves, as their well rehearsed theatrics clearly indicate. Both are muscular and dark skinned, they are a creation of mass media for spectacular consumption. Ray Lewis’s performances are obviously scripted, with fits of uncontrollable rage and lunatic frets, all highlighted by a background of pyrotechnics synchronized with his gallant entrance. Lewis is the pornographic athlete that engages in animation and needs sedation. Similarly, in another episode of violent exhibition, The Hulk goes into combat with Superman, nearly killing the much admired superhero in a rapine intended to terrify young audiences. So it becomes obvious that both The Hulk and Ray Lewis need to be constrained. They replicate drunken Negroes, necessitating the imposition of extreme physical enforcement to constrain such psychopathic behavior. Any legislation or military response to achieve such goals is justifiable. And there are numerous other characters in children’s television that display elements of adverse behavior, starting with the “Go Go Gophers” as Indians who can’t act according to civilized standards of conduct, to the heroic “Dudley Do-Right” with his arch villain Snidely Whiplash, (a dark skinned Jewish looking character). And others like Ben Grim of the Fantastic Four and Loki the villainous Norse God have distinct roles to fulfill as criminals or invalids. Finally, “The Green Goblin” of Spiderman makes audiences fear for the safety of middle class America.
Then we come to an especially well known icon, “Scooby Doo,” the inarticulate canine. He’s a stupefied, childish and dependent dog-like character being paraded around town, strolling nervously along, looking for something suspicious. Scooby can’t function without his white chaperone, an entire group of them. They surround Scooby and guide him throughout the day while conducting law enforcement to catch criminals as volunteer police officers in need of thrills. Scooby is brown skinned, tall and lanky—a virtual Negro who can’t talk properly, nor conduct his daily routine independently. Scooby Doo is surely a prototype of a stupefied racial group, created and then projected upon young minds unable to differentiate fiction from reality. To children, television shows became reality and the icons projected provided the primary means of acculturation to those physically and economically separated from those characters depicted on the screen.
Given the wide variety of cartoon, comic book and media characters available to audiences via television and cinema, a critic needs a database to categorize and deconstruct the myriad personalities selected for consumption. I’ve chosen a select group from contemporary and historical literature who’ve passed through the media gradually from folklore to comic book to television and ultimately featured in cinema. Common themes reoccur in differentiated modes: however a uniform pattern of projection is reassembled to depict an irritating trait in the majority of mediated productions. The logic of good versus evil, where intellect guides brute force to achieve honesty and fair play is universal and white people hover over the darker races for the benefit of humanity. There exists the pattern of social engineering; mechanized regimentation of life, beginning with school children, whose minds are carefully manicured and manipulated. Indoctrination must encompass not only school instruction, but also most forms of observation, both causal and intense. Thus, the ultimate purpose of indoctrination through folklore is to insure that policies derived and implemented by the political elite are seemingly necessitated by the obligation contain and rectify recalcitrant groups, while at the same time, opaquely expanding the reach of capitalism via Green Revolutions, Foreign [humanitarian] intervention, childhood abductions (native American boarding schools), preemptive [mass] murder – political assassinations and on and on.
Historical Background
Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist and author of “The Uses of Enchantment“ where he discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm of Germany. Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears in remote, symbolic terms….Bettelheim thought that by engaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.” Bettelheim was a great influence on L Frank Baum, writer and creator of the Wizard of Oz. Who, conversely, authored companion publications centered on the “Land of Oz”. However it’s the personification of the iconic green monster/villain that incorporates many of the aspects of alienation that when inculcated into the minds of adolescents create a template of racial zed imagery that serves the purposes of corporate management and population control. These images have been expropriated from folklore dating back to biblical times and recreated in motion picture/television to galvanize the social cleavages and validate policies of extermination, expropriation, and occupation.
Deforestation, mountain clearing, strip mining…etc., are all justified by the necessities of profit and sanctified by Christian-Judaea teachings sanctioning dominion over the natural/passive environment. That which being useless until it is processed for manufacturing (domestication), its’ green wildness must be brought under the control of white rationality, the Cartesian model, where it is measured, graded, and quantified for processing. Thus, the extinction of hoards of wild animals, botanic and bird life never seems to bother those whose lives are inculcated with such beliefs. Ultimately, the rational for elimination of the 70 million buffalo, flocks of carrier pigeons, and the permanent alteration of aquatic bodies reside in the anthropocentric theories and biblical teaching of human dominion over that untamed wildness. Consequently, those greenish characters in literature and movies provide justification for the alteration/extermination. Whether it’s “Operation Rolling Thunder” murdering Asian populations or Monsanto’s Agent Orange eliminating wild jungles, few come forward to question the higher priorities of policymakers if the enemy is already predetermined and the solution is preordained by God. Education in all facets of observation is the constant borage of imagery, highly refined and prefabricated. Dorothy is good, as is Snow White, with her seven dwarfs, just as the Munchkins of Oz, are servants. They are the indigenous groups seeking guidance and control. Their lives are to be arranged according to the necessities of civilization. Both Tarzan and Captain Kirk have a civilizing mission, although separated by time and space. If violence is needed to overcome minute obstacles of disobedience, then such force is mandated. And so is America’s in all four quarters of the globe; Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola…etc. The profit motive is obscured, the geopolitical ambitions remain undefined, yet the altruistic intentions of the state were already validated in folklore. The [investigating] journalists never go beyond a casual examination of the pertinent issues, however violent the methods employed. The millions exterminated in Iraq aren’t tabulated, only referred to in atomized pronouncements. A suicide bombing by the Islamic insurgents, crazed and uncontrollable, our government has seemingly no choice but to unleash a fleet of robotic airplanes to protect white lives. The intellectuals of the Middle East are comfortably situated in Washington D.C. at think tanks, while the voices of opposition are muted, if not eliminated, peremptorily.
The role of the foreign, non English speaking, character in American media is sparse. Few, if any reach the television screen, printed page or intellectual journal. While being presented in varied forms and mediums, their presence in children’s folklore follow the trajectories established in the 1960s as a supplement to the narrative that served to galvanize existing polarities. Such as the cartoon characters, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale of “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. Equipped with Russian accents, black attire they always plot to confuse the buffoon moose, “Bullwinkle” while his angelic partner, “Rocky”, flies to the rescue and prevent tragedy. Bullwinkle, greenish and lanky, is another barely articulate African, however he is always honest and appreciative -- a good servant. Conversely, Boris is a caricature of the communist threat from Eastern Europe, never satisfied with the diplomatic efforts of Rocky, the just and upright American, he is unrelenting in his pursue of criminality. The series started with the pilot “Rocky the Flying Squirrel”. Production began in February 1958 with the hiring of voice actors June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Scott and William Conrad. 8 months later, General Mills signed a deal to sponsor the cartoon under the condition that the show be run in a late afternoon time slot, where it could be targeted towards children. General Mills manufactures several breakfast cereals, Wheaties, Cheerios, and Lucky Charms. The time period of production was at the very height of the cold war with Russia, thus the characterization fits neatly into the necessities of indoctrination. “Rocky, the Flying Squirrel,” is a virtual “Surface to Surface Missile” launched by the strong arm of Bullwinkle to conquer a constant Russian threat to American liberty.
The attributes of comic book heroes mimic the supernatural abilities of divine beings that intervene to prevent tragedy from devastating mortals (taxpayers) who want nothing more than peace and freedom. What is selected for presentation from the evening news to Saturday morning cartoons must be coordinated through a visual pipeline carefully manicured and manipulated to insure a precise image of good versus bad, while true history is regulated to leather bound volumes that collect dust on the selves of the local library. And future historians who can create an independent voice in the media are now being restrained by loads of debt accumulated in college. That just maybe the hidden agenda behind the constant rising tuition rates at universities nationwide. Those potential independent, free lance writers must, upon graduation, forego avenues of free thinking and critical thought in order to satisfy the financial obligations created by years of collegian training; so they’re forced to find employment in corporate America. As a result, the suffocation of historical reality is maintained. The censorship is nonofficial, but legal and effective. The indoctrination continues in cinematic production, however imperceptibly. It becomes mod and fashionable, taking on new and more exotic dimensions. Ray Lewis’ demonic dance—Michael Jackson’s children, Whitney Houston’s last days. All are yet forms of the prefabricated theatrics permitting a condensed psychological profile of the incapability of the darker races to control their own lives. The lands of Africa are free for the taking, because Africa’s inhabitants can’t provide for themselves, nor can they stop fighting.
Ipads, smartphones, laptops...etc. are the new pipeline to the ingratiation. Virtually from the moment one is awakened there is the constant barrage of images. Our perpetual attention is necessary if the wars for American hegemony are to be maintained. History and reality is now presented in portable internet space, so that indoctrination is innovated to accommodate this new medium. Old characters are re casted to fit a new smaller screen; Ironman, Spiderman, The Hulk…Fantastic Four…etc., have been re imposed on an new audience. The new high tech superhero, armed with sophisticated weaponry, flying through our urban centers in search of evil are the precursors to the UAVs being delivered to municipal law enforcement for higher levels of observation and containment. Ironman is now an unmanned drone equipped with lasers and missiles. His enemies are the terrorist who set bombs at marathons, pirates off the coast of Somali, rock throwing Arabs in Israel..etc. The indoctrination is successful. Americans accept the retrenchment of liberties, rights, privacy in order to repel the allies of Bin Laden and the ghosts of Hussein, Arbenz, Qudaffi,…Lumumba…etc.
The cost of being afraid is staggering when compared to the actual existence of real terror. Repetitive messages fill our mental atmosphere with the constant search for criminals [terrorist]. The daily news becomes an extension of the imagery created by cartoons, movies, music videos…etc. The actual terror of depleted uranium shells, white phosphorous, DIME weaponry, goes unnoticed by a captivated society. Repetitive mainstream propaganda creates a belief system, popular reference points, symbols, archetypes, mental patterns, a mindset and groupthink all based on repetition – and group think with Hollywood blowing the trumpet to rally troops for select conflicts.
Israel’s commitment to peace is highlighted by Brad Pitt and the producers of World War Z. The Mossad has its allies in Washington and Hollywood who obscure the victims in Gaza and Central America that never make Beverly Hills A-list nor straddle the Red Carpet. Their voices have long been muted. Their calls for justice regulated to newsletters far removed from the main stream of imagery and information. Al Jazeera records minute episodes of the violent they suffer for a select audience, the size of which can’t compare to the legends of good grace for Israel created by the movie World War Z and the visitation of the semi-deified entertainer Whitney Houston. All give the murderous Zionist good standing in the hearts of America. They do the lobbying when the official Zionist salesmen of AIPAC need to be supplemented in the media.
Demonization of the dark skinned masses began early in cinematic production with Hollywood’s Academy award winning movies, “The Birth of a Nation” and “Gone With the Wind”, and continued with much notable features such as Tarzan and King Kong, then continues in more subtle forms in Disney’s animations featuring multicolored insects, midgets, and green monsters. The Zombies of World War Z are an extension of same imagery of racial and ethnic bigotry. Projected this time with high intensity stereographic effects and dazzling special effect. The impact is tremendous—and lasting and the indoctrination is nearly complete. (To Be Continued)
ClevelandBeasley@aol.com
www.infinite-Quest.weebly.com
Popular media historiographies are conveyed to masses through a pipeline that reveals very little to the imagination of those intended to ingest its output. The most efficient method of mass presentation since the late 1950s has been to transmit such restrained idealisms via television which at that moment come to supplant movies and radio. Since the 1960s a strategic of broadcasting revised folklore and newly created animation intended to inculcate certain cultural biases into the psychic of the targeted audience has made their appearance on prime-time Saturday Morning television. Many of these same media characters are even now being revisited in cinematic production. However it’s the initial efforts of media producers to manipulate the minds of adults and children alike by the utilization of specific icons is the subject of this criticism. Major themes presented during the time period selected for my research tend to be contemporaneous with specific political and historical events and patterns that can be examined to reveal a degree of collaboration between elite figures in the high chambers of media production and governance in the United States. Such that, the intended effect of the mass presentation of these icons was to desensitize the audience to certain external acts (both military and political) and demonize certain characteristics of alien cultures, places and peoples. Then, preparing both participates in subsequent dubious [military] activities and the viewing public to proceed without adverse reaction. Over the course of time since the initial efforts of televised indoctrination, new methods of suffusion have been created, both analog and digital forms to serve the same purpose of propaganda and alienation. Those methodologies are selected to grasp and reconfigure the psyche of the targeted audience thru the promulgation of [color] coded arch types that reflect and impersonate naturally occurring phenomenon and produced a mindset conductive with the intensions of American hegemony and capitalist infiltration.
One particular iconic figure worth noting is the reptilian antagonist “The Grinch” of the cartoon movie, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” This fictional creature displays an obvious similarity with exceedingly undesirable elements found in the natural environment and persons of certain foreign cultures. Note that the Grinch’s unkempt demeanor, his slanted eyes and malicious verbalisms capture the imagination and then imprint a template that can aggravate existing prejudices. Its’ creator Theodor ‘Dr. Seuss’ Geisel manufactured the villainous malefactor to convey a certain character trait articulated by cultural prejudices and racial profiles. An examination of Geisel’s commercial cartoon production will reveal an intended motive for creating this demonizing arch villain, who along with a generation of like characters that appeared in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 70s in forms that were intended to create a given characteristic not too dissimilar to enemy combatants vivified during the cold war with communism and complement the commercial transformation of Southern Hemispheric horticultures and the subsequent conversion of their native vegetation into domesticated varieties of co modified crops. Geisel’s long career in media production pre-dated World War II and it is my theory that he was selected and later paired with prescreened individuals to execute a precise articulation in order to justify external political ambitions related to Geisel’s work. Similar themes and parallel characterizations that appeared in comic book publications were ultimately expropriated to other forms of mass media to further instill a pattern of polarization; good versus evil, wild versus domesticated, with subliminal suggestions that intensified the necessity for domestication, containment and/or extermination. My purpose is to highlight a common trait in certain media productions that were utilized as a method of indoctrination to selected groups who are neither conscious of the projected messages nor offended by adverse characterizations
Born in Springfield Massachusetts, Theodor Geisel was reared by parents whom both had careers in the creative arts. His father, a mechanical inventor, his mother wrote poetry. As an adolescent, Theodor dabbled in the cartoons as a child, drawing in his free time in notebooks and on scratch paper. Later on while doodling, drawing numerous characters in a notebook during class time, he was noticed by a classmate who suggested he try cartooning as an artistic professional. After a period of trial and error, Geisel emerged as a cartoonist for Standard Oil. There he created a protagonist [Grinch] that would remain in American fiction for decades and utilized to assist the distribution of a DDT-based insecticide called “Flit” a product of Stanco, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey. Flit would eventually become a character of its own, surpassing even the ambitions of Geisel. The toxic elixir became the solution to insects [mosquitoes] that menaced American homeowners. “Quick Henry the Flit,” was the tagline used to summons the DDT based elixir expended to neutralize those irritating bugs. Later on, a Korean War propaganda film highlighted Flit as a defoliate. In a YouTube retrospective now available on the internet, an USAF military plane with the Flit logo attached to the cockpit takes flight to spread its poisonous cargo unto the farm lands of Korea during that murderous conflict of the 1950s.
Geisel cartooning career had an interlude as an Army Commander where he supervised the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army during World War II, there he wrote several films including, “Our Job in Japan” and the series “Private Snafu,” an adult training film. The movie, Our Job in Japan, became the basis for “Designed for Death” a commercial feature film. One of Geisel’s cartoons depicted all Japanese as latent traitors. Also, he supported Japanese interment during the war, stating without reservation, “But right now, when the Japs are planting hatchets in our skull, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: “Brothers!” It is rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win we’ve got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left.”
There lays the underlining theory: “Grinch” is the living embodiment of an antagonist that was simultaneously a weed, that undesirable vegetation to be sprayed and defoliated by Flit (and later its’ cousin – Agent Orange) and also he’s an Oriental needing to be contained or exterminated. His adversaries in the movie, ”The Grinch who Stole Christmas,” are the “Whos” of Whoville, an idealized race of middle class – law abiding white citizens whom the Grinch harasses and oppresses unnecessarily. While a further examination of this theory is needed for a conclusive judgment, we can tally the numerous reoccurring racial symbols in the media characterized by heroes, goddesses, and do gooders. Such a theory needs deconstruction in order to achieve a full insight into the nature of overt racial indoctrination. Dr. Seuss’s 46 children books depict a variety of characters, some good, others bad, however, none more distinctive than The Grinch. The movie feature, broadcasted in prime time television, was coupled with a very selective narration, that began with:
“You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch
As slimy as an eel”
It continues,
“You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch
Brain full of spiders
Garlic in your soul”
With further denunciations,
“Termites in you smile
Seasick crocodile”
The demonizing theme song possesses stark indications that insects and reptiles are implicit to his very being; Grinch is oppressive and his life is purposeless. Drawn by Geisel’s precision guided hands he was rendered as a pot bellied and furry, bipedaling feline and he is exceedingly ugly for obvious purposes. The nearest appropriation of “The Grinch” in historical folklore is a character found in “The Encyclopedia of Mythological Creators and Demons” called, “Grindylow.” A monster in English folklore from Yorkshire, England, that is described as a “humanoid monster with excessively long arms and fingers.” However, it’s conceiveable that Greisel didn’t appropriate the Grindylow’s characteristics for his own works, yet the similarities are interesting.
CBS Television when broadcasting the movie in primetime accompanied it with music and narration. The famed horror movie star, Boris Karloff served as both the narrator and voice of The Grinch, adding to its already demonic character. This signifies a stark contrast to other television programs broadcasted during the Christmas holidays, most of which lack a contravening character or bad guy in their story line. Note that neither, “Rudolph, The Red Nose Reindeer,” nor “Frosty the Snowman,” nor even “Charlie Brown’s Christmas,” utilize an overly antagonizing personality. With the exception of the placement of a darker toned individual in Frosty the Snowman, depicting characteristics of an Italian or Jew, a commonality in many feature cartoons and the perennial Lucy in the Charlie Brown series, depicted as a Lesbian with abnormal strength for a female. However, one particular commonality found among most of the antagonist in feature films of that time period is the intensity of vivid colorization being well pronounced, with the darker hues given to the dumber more malicious characters. In the Grinch’s case, his exaggerated limbs and fingers resembling claws, his oval face dominated with huge red eyes and a deep lip line enabling a frown or smile whether needed. The Grinch greenish color is selected deliberately being that it is similar to the vegetation naturally occurring in the undomesticated environment. This color theme will reoccur in numerous animations and feature films. Casting that unique hue to several feature figures, including “The Hulk,” and Ben Grimm of the “Fantastic Four,” both of whom are muscular, inarticulate brutes who supplement a team of refined and intelligent whites. The Hulk and Ben Grimm present a vivid contrast to their urbane and educated comrades as they trod in unison to combat crime and bring law and order to chaotic situations.
I suggest a theory that the intended purpose of CBS Television, a subsidiary of Westinghouse-a major defense contractor, for broadcasting The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was to vivify Vietnamese, who resemble the Grinch racially and needed to be exterminated in warfare. Also to implore the necessity for defoliation of Vietnamese jungles and crop land. The defoliation was done while the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) was promoting the controversial “Green Revolution,” which entailed the conversion of millions of acres of wild vegetation to orderly rows of farmable crops in countries in the Third World. Note that the timeline partially fits; America introduces DDT based herbicides into Southeast Asia in 1961 and subsequently U.S. Army ground troops make their initial appearance in 1965. “The Grinch That Stole Christmas,” made its debut broadcast in 1966. The “Green Revolution” was the nickname of a mega project undertaken by USAID to promote petroleum based fertilizers and herbicides, like Flit, in the Third World. US based oil and agribusiness companies [Standard Oil] were the primary distributors of these synthetic substances. Also, worth noting that Standard Oil also supplied the primary component for the chemical incendiary, Napalm, which was widely used in the Asian theatre of war on several occasions, starting in Japan during those murderous bombing raids in WWII, then in Korean and subsequently Vietnam.
These methods of race based social engineering were to be put into practice in numerous other places too. In Puerto Rico the USAID sponsored an involuntary sexual sterilization program that required the native Latino women under go to surgical procedures. Also many of those women were used as ‘Guinea Pigs’ to test experimental birth control drugs. Over one third of the sexually mature female population underwent procedures to prevent child birth. At that time, American leaders feared a population explosion of ‘undesirables’ that would eventually create the foundations of global revolution. The darker skinned, non-English speaking populations constituted a menace that had to be retracted in order to preempt any disruptions to the steady flow of profits. In 1977, Dr Richard T Revehaul, US AID’s Population Officer in Puerto Rico suggested, “that if U.S. goals were met, one fourth of the world’s women would be sterilized to prevent revolution that would interfere with the financial interest of multinational corporations.” It is this process of elimination that originated with the stereotyping of certain groups deemed potentially hostile to the steady flow of profits. Seemingly, the partial solution was to broadcast numerous images of recalcitrant characters that inculcated a belief system in select audiences that unfit racial groups required containment and or elimination.
The imagery created in children’s literature passes on to television, then to cinema as features of a reality to be imposed on adolescent minds. Characters such as the “Wicked Witch of the East” in the movie “The Wizard of Oz” or the ‘Uncontrollable Hulk’ of comic book fame, served a specific unacknowledged purpose, yet vital as a mechanism of thought control. In the outset of “The Wizard of Oz” our virgin mistress, Dorothy, is casted into oblivion from her native Kansas by the violent uncontrollable winds of nature where she lands into a neatly manicured wonderland called “Oz.” Young and beautiful, Dorothy however is lost and confused, in desperate need of a chaperone, who conveniently descends from heaven in the person of the good [and white] “Witch of the West”-- the Occident. To her horror, Dorothy is confronted by the “Wicked Witch of the East” – the Orient, who incidentally is vivid green. Notice that the Witch of the West is actually the “Virgin Mary,” who descends from heaven to assist Dorothy in her earthly endeavors, while her greenish counterpart is nothing more than demised, “Fertility Goddess,” of antiquity, her dress never separates from the ground where she was spawn, however the “Good Witch” of the West is adorned in a simmering pink lace custom fit gown, angelic in its contorts with wings attached to the sleeves. By contrast, her counterpart is ugly, oppressive, and ruthless, just as in the cast of the Grinch, a psychopath who needs to be constrained, yet in the evil witch’s case she is finally murdered, however accidently, by Dorothy. And much to the delight of her slavish eves, the Munchkins, who rejoice spontaneously.
The subsequent revelry after Dorothy’s unintended “Coup de tat” was no less than that for a coronation, with joyous singing of praise for Dorothy, coupled with a parade of newly liberated Munchkins who follow Dorothy’s horse drawn stagecoach. Finally she is presented with an official proclamation from Munchkins that certify the sanctity of the Wicked Witch’s death. Validating not only her murder, but the transition of authority from Dark Green to Whiteness or wildness to domestication, which validates the righteousness of “chaos to order,” and then partially recreates the ancient myth of Marduk, the Babylonian God, who establishes order by killing Tiamat, the feminine dragon of primordial chaos, subsequently Marduk establishes a new code of obedience based on patriarchal values. Author and Historian, Lucy Wyatt wrote in her book, “Approaching Chaos,” about the legacy of the transformation resulting from the demonization of the “Greenish” archetype. She state that, “In taking over these [temples] sites Christianity purposefully destroyed the respect that the old religion had for the forces of nature. The derogatory use of the word pagan itself meant “country dweller” or “bumpkin.” Thus the Church transformed the Greek god of nature Pan, into the emblem of the devil which his cloven hooves and his horns. The ‘Green Man,’ with his mouth spouting leaves and branches craving of which one can occasionally find hidden away in medieval churches, became a subversive image. The Church wanted to disconnect us from nature.”
Another set of characters in contemporary media came to exhibit a peculiar voracity worth analyzing. They’re the movie character, “The Hulk” and football legend, Ray Lewis, formerly of the Baltimore Colts. Recalled that neither of this two men can seemingly control themselves, as their well rehearsed theatrics clearly indicate. Both are muscular and dark skinned, they are a creation of mass media for spectacular consumption. Ray Lewis’s performances are obviously scripted, with fits of uncontrollable rage and lunatic frets, all highlighted by a background of pyrotechnics synchronized with his gallant entrance. Lewis is the pornographic athlete that engages in animation and needs sedation. Similarly, in another episode of violent exhibition, The Hulk goes into combat with Superman, nearly killing the much admired superhero in a rapine intended to terrify young audiences. So it becomes obvious that both The Hulk and Ray Lewis need to be constrained. They replicate drunken Negroes, necessitating the imposition of extreme physical enforcement to constrain such psychopathic behavior. Any legislation or military response to achieve such goals is justifiable. And there are numerous other characters in children’s television that display elements of adverse behavior, starting with the “Go Go Gophers” as Indians who can’t act according to civilized standards of conduct, to the heroic “Dudley Do-Right” with his arch villain Snidely Whiplash, (a dark skinned Jewish looking character). And others like Ben Grim of the Fantastic Four and Loki the villainous Norse God have distinct roles to fulfill as criminals or invalids. Finally, “The Green Goblin” of Spiderman makes audiences fear for the safety of middle class America.
Then we come to an especially well known icon, “Scooby Doo,” the inarticulate canine. He’s a stupefied, childish and dependent dog-like character being paraded around town, strolling nervously along, looking for something suspicious. Scooby can’t function without his white chaperone, an entire group of them. They surround Scooby and guide him throughout the day while conducting law enforcement to catch criminals as volunteer police officers in need of thrills. Scooby is brown skinned, tall and lanky—a virtual Negro who can’t talk properly, nor conduct his daily routine independently. Scooby Doo is surely a prototype of a stupefied racial group, created and then projected upon young minds unable to differentiate fiction from reality. To children, television shows became reality and the icons projected provided the primary means of acculturation to those physically and economically separated from those characters depicted on the screen.
Given the wide variety of cartoon, comic book and media characters available to audiences via television and cinema, a critic needs a database to categorize and deconstruct the myriad personalities selected for consumption. I’ve chosen a select group from contemporary and historical literature who’ve passed through the media gradually from folklore to comic book to television and ultimately featured in cinema. Common themes reoccur in differentiated modes: however a uniform pattern of projection is reassembled to depict an irritating trait in the majority of mediated productions. The logic of good versus evil, where intellect guides brute force to achieve honesty and fair play is universal and white people hover over the darker races for the benefit of humanity. There exists the pattern of social engineering; mechanized regimentation of life, beginning with school children, whose minds are carefully manicured and manipulated. Indoctrination must encompass not only school instruction, but also most forms of observation, both causal and intense. Thus, the ultimate purpose of indoctrination through folklore is to insure that policies derived and implemented by the political elite are seemingly necessitated by the obligation contain and rectify recalcitrant groups, while at the same time, opaquely expanding the reach of capitalism via Green Revolutions, Foreign [humanitarian] intervention, childhood abductions (native American boarding schools), preemptive [mass] murder – political assassinations and on and on.
Historical Background
Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist and author of “The Uses of Enchantment“ where he discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm of Germany. Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears in remote, symbolic terms….Bettelheim thought that by engaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.” Bettelheim was a great influence on L Frank Baum, writer and creator of the Wizard of Oz. Who, conversely, authored companion publications centered on the “Land of Oz”. However it’s the personification of the iconic green monster/villain that incorporates many of the aspects of alienation that when inculcated into the minds of adolescents create a template of racial zed imagery that serves the purposes of corporate management and population control. These images have been expropriated from folklore dating back to biblical times and recreated in motion picture/television to galvanize the social cleavages and validate policies of extermination, expropriation, and occupation.
Deforestation, mountain clearing, strip mining…etc., are all justified by the necessities of profit and sanctified by Christian-Judaea teachings sanctioning dominion over the natural/passive environment. That which being useless until it is processed for manufacturing (domestication), its’ green wildness must be brought under the control of white rationality, the Cartesian model, where it is measured, graded, and quantified for processing. Thus, the extinction of hoards of wild animals, botanic and bird life never seems to bother those whose lives are inculcated with such beliefs. Ultimately, the rational for elimination of the 70 million buffalo, flocks of carrier pigeons, and the permanent alteration of aquatic bodies reside in the anthropocentric theories and biblical teaching of human dominion over that untamed wildness. Consequently, those greenish characters in literature and movies provide justification for the alteration/extermination. Whether it’s “Operation Rolling Thunder” murdering Asian populations or Monsanto’s Agent Orange eliminating wild jungles, few come forward to question the higher priorities of policymakers if the enemy is already predetermined and the solution is preordained by God. Education in all facets of observation is the constant borage of imagery, highly refined and prefabricated. Dorothy is good, as is Snow White, with her seven dwarfs, just as the Munchkins of Oz, are servants. They are the indigenous groups seeking guidance and control. Their lives are to be arranged according to the necessities of civilization. Both Tarzan and Captain Kirk have a civilizing mission, although separated by time and space. If violence is needed to overcome minute obstacles of disobedience, then such force is mandated. And so is America’s in all four quarters of the globe; Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola…etc. The profit motive is obscured, the geopolitical ambitions remain undefined, yet the altruistic intentions of the state were already validated in folklore. The [investigating] journalists never go beyond a casual examination of the pertinent issues, however violent the methods employed. The millions exterminated in Iraq aren’t tabulated, only referred to in atomized pronouncements. A suicide bombing by the Islamic insurgents, crazed and uncontrollable, our government has seemingly no choice but to unleash a fleet of robotic airplanes to protect white lives. The intellectuals of the Middle East are comfortably situated in Washington D.C. at think tanks, while the voices of opposition are muted, if not eliminated, peremptorily.
The role of the foreign, non English speaking, character in American media is sparse. Few, if any reach the television screen, printed page or intellectual journal. While being presented in varied forms and mediums, their presence in children’s folklore follow the trajectories established in the 1960s as a supplement to the narrative that served to galvanize existing polarities. Such as the cartoon characters, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale of “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. Equipped with Russian accents, black attire they always plot to confuse the buffoon moose, “Bullwinkle” while his angelic partner, “Rocky”, flies to the rescue and prevent tragedy. Bullwinkle, greenish and lanky, is another barely articulate African, however he is always honest and appreciative -- a good servant. Conversely, Boris is a caricature of the communist threat from Eastern Europe, never satisfied with the diplomatic efforts of Rocky, the just and upright American, he is unrelenting in his pursue of criminality. The series started with the pilot “Rocky the Flying Squirrel”. Production began in February 1958 with the hiring of voice actors June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Scott and William Conrad. 8 months later, General Mills signed a deal to sponsor the cartoon under the condition that the show be run in a late afternoon time slot, where it could be targeted towards children. General Mills manufactures several breakfast cereals, Wheaties, Cheerios, and Lucky Charms. The time period of production was at the very height of the cold war with Russia, thus the characterization fits neatly into the necessities of indoctrination. “Rocky, the Flying Squirrel,” is a virtual “Surface to Surface Missile” launched by the strong arm of Bullwinkle to conquer a constant Russian threat to American liberty.
The attributes of comic book heroes mimic the supernatural abilities of divine beings that intervene to prevent tragedy from devastating mortals (taxpayers) who want nothing more than peace and freedom. What is selected for presentation from the evening news to Saturday morning cartoons must be coordinated through a visual pipeline carefully manicured and manipulated to insure a precise image of good versus bad, while true history is regulated to leather bound volumes that collect dust on the selves of the local library. And future historians who can create an independent voice in the media are now being restrained by loads of debt accumulated in college. That just maybe the hidden agenda behind the constant rising tuition rates at universities nationwide. Those potential independent, free lance writers must, upon graduation, forego avenues of free thinking and critical thought in order to satisfy the financial obligations created by years of collegian training; so they’re forced to find employment in corporate America. As a result, the suffocation of historical reality is maintained. The censorship is nonofficial, but legal and effective. The indoctrination continues in cinematic production, however imperceptibly. It becomes mod and fashionable, taking on new and more exotic dimensions. Ray Lewis’ demonic dance—Michael Jackson’s children, Whitney Houston’s last days. All are yet forms of the prefabricated theatrics permitting a condensed psychological profile of the incapability of the darker races to control their own lives. The lands of Africa are free for the taking, because Africa’s inhabitants can’t provide for themselves, nor can they stop fighting.
Ipads, smartphones, laptops...etc. are the new pipeline to the ingratiation. Virtually from the moment one is awakened there is the constant barrage of images. Our perpetual attention is necessary if the wars for American hegemony are to be maintained. History and reality is now presented in portable internet space, so that indoctrination is innovated to accommodate this new medium. Old characters are re casted to fit a new smaller screen; Ironman, Spiderman, The Hulk…Fantastic Four…etc., have been re imposed on an new audience. The new high tech superhero, armed with sophisticated weaponry, flying through our urban centers in search of evil are the precursors to the UAVs being delivered to municipal law enforcement for higher levels of observation and containment. Ironman is now an unmanned drone equipped with lasers and missiles. His enemies are the terrorist who set bombs at marathons, pirates off the coast of Somali, rock throwing Arabs in Israel..etc. The indoctrination is successful. Americans accept the retrenchment of liberties, rights, privacy in order to repel the allies of Bin Laden and the ghosts of Hussein, Arbenz, Qudaffi,…Lumumba…etc.
The cost of being afraid is staggering when compared to the actual existence of real terror. Repetitive messages fill our mental atmosphere with the constant search for criminals [terrorist]. The daily news becomes an extension of the imagery created by cartoons, movies, music videos…etc. The actual terror of depleted uranium shells, white phosphorous, DIME weaponry, goes unnoticed by a captivated society. Repetitive mainstream propaganda creates a belief system, popular reference points, symbols, archetypes, mental patterns, a mindset and groupthink all based on repetition – and group think with Hollywood blowing the trumpet to rally troops for select conflicts.
Israel’s commitment to peace is highlighted by Brad Pitt and the producers of World War Z. The Mossad has its allies in Washington and Hollywood who obscure the victims in Gaza and Central America that never make Beverly Hills A-list nor straddle the Red Carpet. Their voices have long been muted. Their calls for justice regulated to newsletters far removed from the main stream of imagery and information. Al Jazeera records minute episodes of the violent they suffer for a select audience, the size of which can’t compare to the legends of good grace for Israel created by the movie World War Z and the visitation of the semi-deified entertainer Whitney Houston. All give the murderous Zionist good standing in the hearts of America. They do the lobbying when the official Zionist salesmen of AIPAC need to be supplemented in the media.
Demonization of the dark skinned masses began early in cinematic production with Hollywood’s Academy award winning movies, “The Birth of a Nation” and “Gone With the Wind”, and continued with much notable features such as Tarzan and King Kong, then continues in more subtle forms in Disney’s animations featuring multicolored insects, midgets, and green monsters. The Zombies of World War Z are an extension of same imagery of racial and ethnic bigotry. Projected this time with high intensity stereographic effects and dazzling special effect. The impact is tremendous—and lasting and the indoctrination is nearly complete. (To Be Continued)
ClevelandBeasley@aol.com
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