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Tooltime recently made a video about just how fearful quick to vilify, the religious
American is, when I was growing up the Simpsons and the Ninja Turtles were considered evil
or Satanic. Back in the 80's there was a book called “Terror in the toybox” that claimed
that all of these secular toys were made with the agenda to turn their kids from god and
to satan. They even made the claim that new age pagans were infusing demons into Cabage
patch kids, giving children nightmares and behavioral problems. Mom actually threw out
my old star wars toys because she thought they were a bad influence, something which
she now regrets and is something which I continue to humorously give her *** about to this
day. Mind you I was also annoyingly obsessed with star wars and would talk about nothing
else so I'm sure that had an impact on her decision as well. The exorcist and rosemarie's
baby actually had a lot to do with resurgence of belief in demonolgy. Media is a powerful
force and can create a ton of fear in the unflexible mind. Once south park and marilyn
manson came out, the right realized that simpsons, madonna and turtles weren't so bad after all.
Then came Harry Potter which sparked a new wave of fear. Why are religious so afraid?
Michael Shermer pointed out that religious people litterally believe that without religion
society will break down and choas will occur. Many blame the rise in crime on the removal
of prayer in schools and women being allowed to work. Actually crime has dropped since
those things occurred due to improvements in economic conditions, but the news reports
it more. The current generation is much more capable of dealing with these paradigm shifts
than older generations. They have to be. I went to go see Harry Potter when I was beginning
to backslide into a liberal christian and everyone was talking about the evils of harry
potter. So I went to go watch it and could see a thing wrong with it even if I had still
been a fundie. And that is the thing the young generation get told something is evil, then
they experience it and go, wait this is what they were freaking out about? It makes them
desensatized to shock and become much more easily disillusioned with what their parents
or church tell them. Over villifing Marijuana commercials do the same thing. This is one
of many reasons why young people think their elders are morons and they know everything.
The youth of the middle east are currently going through the same thing too being told
that western secularism is the devil and they finally experience and go wait this is fun
and not evil at all. Why does this fear effect US more than say Europe? Well the US has twice
the land mass as the EU for the same amount of people. When you live closer together you
are forced to experience more things, to interact and to live together more. In the US you can
live in a closed community without seeing a different point of view. Media and the internet
are now infringing on their isolation and they really don't like it and fear the change.
When the radio was first invented, people were overwhelmed by the amount of mental stimulation
created by them. Prior to that, music was made by people near you, you could sell a
song, and you provided your own theme music with very simple sounds. You probably had
a max of one instrument if you knew how to play and only the well off in big cities had
large expensive orchestras. If any of us were sent back in time, most of us, especially
younger kids would be driven mad with boredom and lack of stimulation. As time has progressed
radio has gone from the most overstimulating sensation around, to the thing you switch
on to relax and help you focus. As we have progressed, the quicker faster and more complex
stimulation a media source has, the more it sells. While we have shorter attention spans,
if harnessed right we can take in a lot more information. The average teen has to know
a lot these days about pop culture, and media, or they will be looked on a living under a
rock. I used to think that kids back in the day must have been smarter because they had
a greater attention span, as old shows can be a bit on the dull side to someone raised
in my era. While they were smart, their ability to adapt their mind to new ideas may have
been a bit slower as the media of the time did not demand it. The knowledge input and
the amount of stimulation to an older person that would be required to allow a loss of
religion may be overwhelming, unless they had always been a ravenous study of new facts
and information. I know so many elderly people who fear change, are a bit slow to grasp humor,
cannot grasp computers, and are taken for rides financially by fast talking swindlers.
Mental stimulation like learning has been shown to prevent Alzheimer and other forms
of elderly delirium, but if they did not do things to stimulate their mind prior, like
constant study, reading and logic puzzles and games, their chances of starting are probably
quite low. I am wondering if these higher bars of information processing speed needed
in this complicated world to keep up socially isn't why we are seeing such a rise in atheism
and free thinking. This new generation is forced into constant change, and to be constantly
skeptical of new scams and schemes they could get sucked into as the internet and new media
and trends to keep up socially and for enjoyment, while many of the elderly come from an age
where change is bad and conformity is good. I know I discuss the elderly often and my
largest demographic are men 45-54 so please don't take this to heart, I know many very
sharp constantly learning constantly thinking elderly people that I look up to, but in the
midwest especially they are a bit few and far between. However your chances of changing
your beliefs after the age of 50 is near zero. Which is why I tend to avoid discussing, relgion
around anyone who is religious and older than 50. I'm wasting my time and making them worry
and stress for my soul because I'm such a nice guy. I will try to push science, tolerance,
secularism and politics, but religion is like the blue pill from the Matrix where they wouldn't
wake people up from the matrix over a certain age.
Back in the day city kids were privy to more information and a higher stimulating experience
than kids out in the country. Thanks to the internet and Cable, even kids working on their
parent's farm out in the middle of the sticks get around the same level of mental stimulation
as a child in the city. I have a feeling my isolationist homeschooling with little outside
TV watching in the middle of the coutry was the only reason why I took religion so seriously
growing up. I remember having a passion for it the way my fellow average kids didn't.
They found the bible boring but necessary, I found it to be the most important thing
in my life. Had I had access to the same movies and TV they did I may have had the exact same
attitude and never studied it enough to end up questioning it. To this day I still have
problems focusing when a TV is playing something bright and flashy because I don't think I've
built up the desensativity to the stimulation that most people have, and to study and listen
to music at the same time well forget it. That may also be linked to my aspergers, but
most people I know claim to study better with background noise playing as they have been
surrounded by it most of their life. There is a dangerous downside to the new normal
for kids. I know many that are sharp and extremely fast thinking, but many of them to keep up
may just have quantity of thinking over quality. ADD may be considered normal and the future
and we may be viewed as slow speaking old timers for using caution. Another danger is
that entertainment and social networking may overshadow and blind many of them to political
and human rights issues. Last generation the young people of China protested often and
tried to push for political change. Perhaps because of their rise in cynicism or just
the rise in material goods, the majority of young people in China are more focused on
entertainment than on politics. America have been in flux in these areas as well with a
serious decline in voting due to apathy. Its been found that if all of the registered democrats
that registered to vote actually showed up to vote, the democratic party would have actually
gained seats. With this ADD instant gratification generation, not getting everything you want
is viewed as failure and disillusionment hits very quickly. Change is slow, much of it is
because people's minds are slow to change, especially our elders, the baby boom generation
who make up a significant portion of the republican party and tea party.
Of course any new evolutionary change has its advantages and dangers either biological
or psychological. Humanity is a continuous race between technology and ethics. We stay
teetering on the edge of a knife, but if we can increase the awareness of others as we
have for centuries, we can and will keep that balance without destroying ourselves and the
world.