Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 16, 2016

The look on Jeff’s face in the third panel is heartbreaking. Poor kid never had a chance.

I blame schools.

I remember being told in the 60s that watching more than, what, three hours of TV a week? would make me into a zombie. I made a list of the shows I would admit to, and was horrified that it was six or seven hours. .I also read Seduction of the Innocent and was horrified. What can I say? I was a sucker for finger-wagging authoritarian wannabees.

Now we know why Jeff turned out the way he did…

If Joanie just applied herself, there are plenty of great places for under school age children. Especially in her area. Of course it may take her entire salary for the week!

Child raising, American style, sigh….

I’m astonished that anybody in the US has an attention span left, after the way US TV breaks everything up into tiny sound-bits alternating with adverts. Here even the commercial channels go at least 15 minutes between blocks of ads.

I have a book from the 30s (IIRC) called Men Against Crime. Anslinger has a chapter to himself in it, in which he’s described in the kind of rock-jawed, glinty-eyed terms usually saved for J. Edgar. Yeah, I’m familiar with the opportunistic bastard and his search for a new career crusade after Prohibition fizzled. The only thing he ever did that I respect is play piano in a silent movie house. (Wertham was looking for a new crusade after his first book, The Show of Violence, ran out of steam.).Still, I think Wertham was at least sincere enough to drink his own Kool-Aid. Didn’t make him any less wrong, of course.

The commercial length is an indication of attention span. We now have 15-second commercials…. Sound mini-bites!

It could be worse. Kids today are on computers, even 4 year olds, and they seem a lot smarter than those of a generation ago. They definatly get a better start.