This is just further proof that what we know and what we think we know is often quite malleable. Reality is often intersubjective - simply put, "truth" is what "we" (or at least, those with power / authority) believe is true. This is something that we all intuitively grasp at some level - the wide acceptance of the effectiveness of political spin proves that - but for some reason people want to hold on to the idea that there are certain real, objective truths about the world (granted, there are some - belief that one can fly by flapping one's hands won't overturn the laws of gravity), when in fact a lot of what defines our existence is quite flexible.
Our beliefs come out of our identity, which comes out of how we are socialized as we grow up and move through our lives; certainly, we have free will - but we can only know what we learn from others or think up ourselves, therefore our reality is constrained by our experience. This is where real power comes from - the place where discourse intersects physical acts. Everyone "knows" smoking is unhealthy, and so "we" take actions to socialize those around us to believe that smoking is bad. But how difficult would it be to see an alternative world where everyone "knows" that smoking is sophisticated, and so "we" socialize ourselves to believe that the freedom to smoke is worth the health risks (indeed, this was pretty much the case in the 1950s and 1960s - that smoking was unhealthy wasn't a huge surprise to most people). Some current example of this might include our attitudes towards alcohol, driver licensing, pornography, etc, etc.
Everything is political - particularly for those of us in developed nations. After all, just living our lives the way we do contributes to environmental pollution and perpetuates unjust economic systems - yet how many people really walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to workers rights and protecting the environment? We are socialized to believe that we have to live in a certain way to be happy - and that happiness often requires owning things that were probably made by exploited third world labor or engaging in activities that will cause pollution...and while we might feel a pang of guilt from time to time, few of us are really willing to give up what we "know" we "need."
We shouldn't be so shocked or disturbed by Turner's editing of these cartoons - it's no more or less than the logical extension of where our society has been going for a long time. Indeed, it's quite arguable that these sorts of things are necessary to hold societies together - if we're not coercively socialized on certain issues, the plurality of beliefs will simply be too much for people to handle. It's a basic truth that people don't like to hear that they're wrong - we're not likely to be friends with those who have beliefs opposite to ours. Thus when we see such a large swing in the discourse as we've seen in the case of smoking, it's natural that there would be some attempt to re-write history to remove some of the cognitive dissonance that would develop. We've done the same with racist imagery - "just try finding a copy of Disney's "The Song of the South."
That said, I think we nonetheless will continue to find these things disturbing, because some part of us wants to believe that there's an objective reality and an objective right and wrong that we can find if we just search hard enough...
Ce n'est pas une pipe. C'est une signature.
I applaud this action.
Now, if the powers-that-be can just eradicate the violence from cartoons, they might be safe for our children to watch.
The Looney Tunes were similarly butchered over the years.
Growing up in the 1960s, I saw scenes like a fish saying "Well, now I've seen everything!" and shooting itself in the head... scenes which were later "cleaned" out of the cartoons. The wartime cartoons, and a lot of other racist content, had already vanished by then.
Now, the complete versions and the long-lost cartoons are included in the DVD boxed sets. Whoopi Goldberg introduced the second volume, discussing the racist content in a pre-monologue on each DVD that cannot be skipped or fast-forwarded through.
Personally, I am against censorship in almost all circumstances. I was brought up with the understanding that there were things too adult for me to see at certain ages, that this was normal, and that someday I would be ready to see these things for myself. When "questionable" content appeared on TV or in a movie, or when I wanted to read a more "grown-up" book, I was not shielded from it... instead, it was explained and put into context.
I knew kids who were forbidden to watch The Three Stooges out of fear that they would imitate the eye-poking... many of them are now diehard Stoogeaholics, while I've mostly outgrown them. Similarly, I never imitated the stuff I saw on the cartoons. Good thing, since I now own way more shotguns than Elmer Fudd ever dreamed of.
(The only program I couldn't watch was Hogan's Heroes: my parents declared that anything portraying Nazis in a humorous light would not air in their home. When I objected to this, my mother woke me up late one night to watch Shoah on PBS... that shut me up)!
I'm not a Democrat, I'm a liberal. Democrats go to meetings...
Do I smoke because of cartoons? I doubt it, but I sometimes wonder if cartoons are why my hobby is dropping anvils on peoples heads. I guess we'll never know,
Does anyone know if they've censored all the cartoons featuring drunkeness? One in particular I remember where Daffy and Porky are staying in a hotel, and Daffy staggers back late from a dice game and Porky stutters at him "You're pixilated". Which is a great line.
"I feel sorry for U.S. kids, who live in an adult filtered Disney world"- Kazuhiko Torishima (editor of Japanese comic book, Shonen Jump)
