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By GENE HOWINGTON
There is nothing more malleable than the mind of a child. Their minds are like sponges, absorbing everything they come in contact with. Previously, we’ve discussed the power of moving images as propaganda, including propaganda aimed at children. Film and video can also be used to educate as illustrated by excellent children’s programs such as Sesame Street. The benefits of this technology in that regard is unquestionable. But what happens when education becomes indoctrination? What happens when the lessons taught are hatred and intolerance? Does this cross the line from education into political propaganda? A recent story raises this very issue and others.
“The Andrew Show” is a crudely produced show viewable on YouTube. It’s not just crude in the sense of production values, although it is that. It is crude in content as well. Subtitled “A Show For White Kids”, the show promotes the White Supremacist views of the Ku Klux Klan. This is no surprise considering the young host of the show is Andrew Pendergraft, the grandson of Thomas Robb. If you don’t know Robb by name, he’s the National Director for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Pastor of the Christian Revival Center.
I invite you to look for yourself at some of the videos below and ask yourself should there be additional limits to political free speech?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLF56BBF0DB19CC3FB&v=5drONi6XHM8
To save bandwidth, I only embedded a single video here. To see the full playlist of videos, use the “Watch on YouTube” option in at the bottom right side of the embedded player. Videos were still being added to the series as recently as April of this year.
This story also raises other issues. When does propaganda become child abuse? Raising a child to have such socially intolerant racial views is not preparing him for success in the real world where living and working with people of different races and creeds is a given. But is it grounds to interfere with custody? We’ve seen stories before about parents losing custody of their children for giving them Nazi names. The production of this show not only arguably is a disservice to this child, but to any child who watches it. It is, however, political free speech. Free speech comes with consequences and duties and has recognized reasonable exceptions at law such as defamation, incitement, and threats. While these videos are certainly disturbing, they don’t rise to the level of the current exceptions and are clearly protected political free speech. Political free speech is a paramount concern for protection and at the heart of the Founder’s desire to protect the ability of the public to dissent. With the noted exceptions to free speech in general, I don’t think anyone should be stopped from expressing a political view simply because it is unpopular or distasteful. Bad ideas will be sorted out in the marketplace of ideas so long as political free speech is protected and debate encouraged. However, when the issue is children, you are not just shaping the minds of the young, you are shaping the future. A responsible society protects its weakest most vulnerable members and no category of human is more vulnerable than children. Human children are require a huge investment to be shepherded into adulthood compared to most other species.
How far should we go to protect that investment? How far can we reasonably go to protect that investment and protect other valid concerns like liberties and freedoms? Including the right to raise your children as you see fit? Is ill-equipping a child for survival in life as damaging as incitement or a threat?
When do unpopular political views cross the line into being directly damaging to others?
Should society limit political free speech by exception, no matter how heinous or unpopular, when children are involved?
Can such a restriction ever be reasonable?
Keep in mind that anything that can be learned can be unlearned.
What do you think?
Source(s): Huffington Post, YouTube, Wikipedia
NOTE: The column was originally published at Res Ispa Loquitur (jonathanturley.org) on July 7, 2013. It has been re-edited for presentation here.
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Flowers For Socrates 
“Give me the child until he is seven and I care not who has him thereafter.” ” — Jesuit maxim
Clotaire Rapille from the PBS Frontline presentation, “The Persuaders”:
When we learn something for the first time as adults, we learn it intellectually and so remain more or less aware of it. So we can unlearn the intellectual at a later date without a great deal of trouble. But having no awareness of the the far more primitive reptillian or limbic parts of the brain, we have a very difficult — if not impossible — time unlearning habitual behaviors deeply established in the subconscious regions of the brain and nervous system.
So, “get ’em young” has always proven the best strategy for producing in the next generation all the primitive human pathologies of the past and present. Those adults who understand this and yet knowingly exploit such knowledge for personal validation or institutional aggrandizement bear primary responsibility for retarding, if not repudiating, such little progress as humanity has managed to achieve in spite of them. But how to hold them to account after they have done their worst if not preventing them from doing their damage in the first place? Difficult questions, indeed.
Choose your parents well, children.
Mr. Murray,
I stumbled across a documentary series called the Up Series. It video recorded a bunch of different children from varying socio-economic backgrounds every 7 years starting at age 7. 56 up was just recently released.
I found it fascinating because early on it seemed apparent as to who the “winners” would be; namely those that had the best hand. But boy o boy o boy, it really took twists and turns every which way.
On a side note, in the 49 Up series, one of the individuals was a cab driver. Observant fellow he was. Made a full-blown prediction that the economy was going to crash within the next five years just from observing the things around him. Ever since replaying that scene a few times, my “keeping an eye” on what the “economists” in their ivory towers are bleating has simply faded away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series
http://thepiratebay.se/search/seven%20up/0/7/0
As the Catholics are noted for saying…. Give me your child while young and I’ll give you a life long member…..
“When does propaganda become child abuse?”
Circumcision?
lol@Oro
Wouldn’t be nearly as funny if there wasn’t an argument for that proposition that holds water.