Have you ever wondered what our children are learning about the world around them, especially politics? All you have to do to find out is look at some of the television programmes aimed at today’s youngsters. The following segments, taken from a show called Sesame Seed Street, are very telling, and more than a little scary:
A young man with a mildly sincere smile and a light brown sweater is standing in the street, holding up a board on which the pictures of four men have been pasted. One is a very old man with a long white beard, the second is a much younger man with a scraggly beard and a big cigar, the third is a very well-dressed middle-aged man, and the last is wearing army green and holding a machine gun. The young man looks at the camera and starts to sing:
“One of these dictators is not like the other ones.
One of these dictators doesn’t belong.
One of these dictators is not like the other ones.
Can you tell which one before I finish my song?”
The man goes on to say: “Let’s see, now. Here we have the Ayatollah Khomeini, and next to him is Fidel Castro. Down below, we have the Shah of Iran, and, oh, a Sandinista soldier I don’t even recognize. They all look pretty much the same, don’t they? But, they’re not.”
Short pause.
“If you guessed the Shah of Iran, then you were absolutely correct. You see, all those other dictators were armed and funded by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Only the Shah of Iran was armed and funded by the United States of America.”
Cut to a cartoon. The numeral one appears on the screen, and a voice says: “One.” The numeral two replaces the numeral one on the screen, and the voice says: “Two.” The numeral three appears, and the voice says: “Three.”
Another voice says: “No, not three.”
The numeral four appears on the screen. The first voice says: “Four.” The seconds voice says: “No. Not four.” The numeral five appears on the screen. “Five?” the first voice asks. “No,” the second voice insists, “not five.”
The numeral six appears on the screen. “Six?” the first voice, now thoroughly shaken, tentatively asks. “Yes,” the second voice authoritatively announces, “the winning number in today’s lottery is one-two-six.” The three numbers briefly take their place on the screen together, then fade away.
Cut to a Muppet wearing a tuxedo in front of a large neon background. An announcer booms: “Hello, and welcome once again to Greed, the game show that indulges everybody’s favourite deadly sin! And, now, here’s your host, that Guy himself, Guy Insincerely!”
Guy flops around for a couple of seconds, eliciting a wild roar from the crowd. Talking into a hand-held microphone, he says: “Hello, and welcome back to the show. Last time, as you may recall, a group of gulls from Encino lost their bid to win $10,000 apiece when they were unable to soil the clothes of 10 or more innocent people outside our studio in three minutes – they only managed to hit eight!”
As the audience groans, a half dozen Muppet cows with masks of human faces appear behind Guy. “Today, a group of cows from Okanaw, Wisconsin are playing for $15,000 and all the grass they can graze for a year! What do they have to do? The money goes to the cow who can repeat the most outrageous rumour about one of his – or her – fellow cows!”
One of the cows comes forward. “Umm, Guy, I don’t know…”
Guy faces the animal. “Are you going to be the first?” he asks.
“We’re just a herd of cows, Guy,” the cow protests. “We don’t have anything bad to say about each other…”
“Not even for $15,000?”
Another cow steps up to guy. “Well, I heard Daisy was seen grazing with a bull from another pasture…”
“Well, that’s a start…” Guy cheerfully states.
From the back of the stage, one of the cows shouts, “I did not!”
The cow that stepped up to Guy says, “You’re right. I made it up…”
After several minutes in which the cows contentedly mill about, always seemingly about to do something but never quite, Guy turns to the camera and says, “Well, that’s about all the time we have today. Be with us next time when we try once again to prove that anybody will do anything if the money is right on…Greed.”
Cut to a cartoon cat. Underneath the figure, the word CAT is spelled. “Cat,” says a voice. The cat is replaced by a dog, underneath which appears the word DOG. “Dog,” says the voice.
The dog is replaced by a small boy throwing a book to the ground. Under the boy is spelled the word ILLITERATE. “Illiterate,” says the voice. “That means you can’t read, like more and more boys and girls all the time.
“Illiterate.”
Cut to an ugly green Muppet sitting at the top of a garbage dump. A young black woman walks up to the Muppet and asks: Hi, Albert. How’s the old intellectual grouch today?”
“Heaped in existential despair and coffee grounds,” Albert replies. “As always. But, now, not only do I have to worry about not having an eternal soul or living a life that has no meaning, but I’ve got an ailing economy to contend with!”
The woman smiles cheerfully. “Did you ever think,” she asks, “that your surroundings might have something to do with your outlook? Why do you want to live in a garbage dump, anyway, Albert?”
“Are you kidding?” Albert responds. “Look around you. This is a slum neighbourhood. At least I’m honest about living in garbage!”
“But, what can we do about slums, Albert?” the woman asks.
“Well,” Albert tells her, “inexpensive government housing and reasonable make work projects would go a long way to solving the immediate problem. But, don’t hold your breath. Given the present economic climate, aid to the poor isn’t likely to become adequate. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up living here yourself in the near future!”
The woman smiles thinly, looking at the garbage around them. “Oh, I don’t think so…” she tells Albert. She looks like she’s about to faint.
Cut to the Sesame Seed Street logo. An announcer says: “Sesame Seed Street was brought to you by the number one-two-six, the word ILLITERATE and MultiNatCorp, makers of fine everything for over 15 years.”
And, they say that children are the hope of the future!