Why the kids shouldn't watch Harry Potter And The Sourcerer's Stone?
The Sick Story
The whole story is a direct reflection of what happens in our deeply sick society. Saturated with dangerously pseudoscientific and outdated ideas and values. Evidently, the author who wrote the original book had no clue about what amounts to sustainable child education, not to mention any knowledge about how biological, psychological and social aspects influence child development.
The whole movie is filled with all kinds of scientifically aberrant and psychologically corrupted ideas. Its story reflects and perpetuates all types of social bullshit permeating our society every day, and is nothing more than dangerous disinformation brainwashing kids about the way they should their lives.
Magically stable child
The film begins with the story of little British boy named Harry growing up around psychologically abusive family. He was being locked up in the small closet under the stairs where he spent most of his life, while being constantly emotionally and physically abused. Despite this he seems to be completely void of any psychological traumas and does not show any sign of emotional or cognitive disorder or underdevelopment caused by his family's abusive treatment. He grew up to be completely psychologically stable kid. Of course it is impossible in real life, but, well, it's a story about magic not reality or science.
(Gabor Mate - The Consequences of Stressed Parenting)
Consumerist spell
Later, Harry ends up in Diagon Valley which is nothing else but Wizard supermarket full of magical consumerist crap. Harry doesn't have money to buy the necessary products so he is forced to go to some bank to get some "monetary magic" (great lesson about capitalism kids!). Obviously, even the realm of wizards was built upon primitive and obsolete ideas of monetary system revolving around it's banking social parasitisim.
There is also an intense social stratification. Harry as being a rich one (inherited a fortune from his real parents) is able to afford buying sweets and sharing them with his poor friend Ron Weasley. I suppose wizards are not very smart kind, if they were unable to figure out how to create their social realm without monetary social manipualtion, inequality, class division and poverty.
College genre
At some point Harry arrives at Hogwarts, which is an important school of wizardry. Right at the main door, he is "welcomed" by awfully cold, unsympathetic and abrupt teacher. That old miserable hag role is to indoctrinate kids with awful school rules. She infuses fear in them with all kinds of warnings and tells them that they will be harshly judged all the time for their performance. Basically, she threatens the little students into being mindlessly obedient or they would face punishment. She explains that they must compete with others to acquire the necessary points. Also school principal terrorizes those children with death warning if they let themselves go to restricted areas.
The whole Hogwarts looks like a typical brainwashing and an abusive boarding school. Just like many schools that have existed in our capitalistic system. Even the food given to kids there look look like model consumerist, cardiac arrest junk food, supersaturated with insanely indulging amounts of greasy meat or sugar.
The school is divided into four different houses - idea that is, obviously, invented to indictrinate the concept of competition and inequality between the kids even further. It is just like our system of "education" works - instead of teaching kids compassion, altruism, creativity and cooperation, it teaches children disgusting competition, mindless memorization of data and unquestionable obedience. This intellectually corrupt and judgmental way of education (anti-education) causes enormous psychological stress, which hinders any creativity or free thinking. It appears that wise wizard kingdom also failed to comprehend the basics of sustainable education and nutrition.
Hogwart? More like hogwash.
Quidditch Battle Royale
Of course, college genre must also include competitive games, ideally resembling football, so main protagonist is enrolled to participate in the game of quidditch. It seems to be some sort of wizard equivalent of rugby. All Hogwart's houses are coerced to compete against each other in a cruel and violent aerial show in front of cheering and entertained brainwashed students and teachers. Players brutally fight by kicking, hitting and pushing other players in order to score points. One of the participating children is badly hit by the ball, that he loses control over his broom, falls and hits the ground so strongly that he knocks himself out completely unconscious.
No surprise
I find it hard to accept that such movie (or book) is being so popular and widely disseminated all over the world as a great children's story. The book is even used in many schools as part of their must read literature curriculum.
It is not surprising though as we live in a society where everything seems to be the other way around. Where pseudoscience and primitive obsolete values prevail over what is considered rational and scientifically educated point of view. The society where what science defines sick and corrupt is considered normal and rewarded. Kids watch these kinds of movies (or read books) and think that is how the world should work.
(Alfie Kohn - Education And Competition)
-logic
The whole point of the series is to see the hero defeat his traumas, he has deep psychological issues , specially with belonging and with human connections.
What do you mean by this?
The world of magic in Harry Potter is a fictional world within our world were their science differs from ours in the aspect that theirs study magic and the laws of the magical world.
I seriously did not understood why is bad for children.
Thank you for reply. If you don't know what is bad I recommend above videos as basic introduction. Once you watch them, I'm happy to provide loads of more information.
I have no comment for the post
but I just want to say
I'm so damn glad to see you back posting again
welcome back!
Thank you. Same here! It is nice to see that you are still around!
:)
not going anywhere man
here feels like home :)
(-:
Awesome , I am gonna watch those . But in your article you do not quote the videos, therefore I did not watch them the first time. Will update once I finish
Thanks. They are quite long but worth it!
Interesting. Totally agree on your view point of our current 'Education' system. Its more of an indoctrination system.
Thanks! I recommend Alfie Kohn presentation under YT link above.
Two of the stories I loved the most as a child were Cinderella, which I read and reread and The Little Princess. Both were of girls whose fathers had died and left them in the hands of abusers. The girls somehow managed through their lives, with smiles and friendships until they were one day released from their prisons of impoverishment. Perhaps the stories were meant to encourage young girls in abusive situations to be strong or it could be that they were taught the wrong things completely – like holding out for a prince charming to rescue them or to believe in a fantasy escapism that could never really be reality. Did I hold out for that as a young adult? No, most definitely not. Literature has always been a means of entertainment, it doesn’t necessarily teach you to buy into capitalism, your parents teach you that when they insist you can’t play in a band, you need to study, to get the certificate, that enables you to earn the big bucks. I grew up impoverished myself, but I didn’t realize how poor I was until I was out of the poverty. When you are poor, you don’t sit back as a child and compare yourself to Cinderella, you laugh and you play, and you are a happy child, even without all the toys. The same would apply then to any child who reads, they are merely enjoying childhood. We could read so much into the occult meanings behind The Wizard of Oz or we could accept that when you read The Girl on the Train, or The Little Engine that Could, you can distinguish the fantasy from reality, whether you are 7 or 17.
The stories we create are usually direct expression of existing dominant values and behaviour within certain culture.
Flouride, GMO's and Harry Potter. The peasants will never revolt , Sire.
OK :-)
@logic is back!
Hahaha!
Hmm, very interesting argument. I definitely agree with a lot of points made here. However, I've seen quite a few children grow up with the HP series and the only psychological effects I've seen are increased creativity and wonder. I dont see any reason why the series is much worse than other mainstream stories that water down concepts like consumerism, competition and division, and present them to children. These themes are so pertinent in the world that kids will become accustomed to them with or without HP. Thanks for sharing though, this one really made me think, followed!
Thanks for a comment.
Your argument is anecdotal. There may be multitude of different factors that have contributed to their ability to wonder and be creative. And many that hinder it.
Yes there are many other movies like this. The thing is that just because society is sick and full of such information does not make it justified and correct, and does not excuse letting children to be submitted to it.
And yes, in current society it seems impossible to completely protect children from that bullshit but we should do our best.
I definitely agree, i just wouldnt pin all the blame on one particular series. It's more of the entire western mindset that is corrupting children today. Have you seen any of the movies from the Japanese Studio Ghibli? Essentially a more conscious minded and wholesome equivalent to Disney movies. I always try and promote them as much as I can in the hopes of raising a generation that can transcend the idiocracy of the current institutions.
I've been rewatching them recently.
They're MUCH better in terms of teaching moral lessons than nearly every western movie, that's for sure.
Thanks I will look into it! :-)
You know, I used to think exactly like you about kids fairy tales. Until I realized that if all kids stories were void of any trace of violence and "unethical" subliminal messages like the ones you mentioned above, they would all have to be similar and this is called ...censorship.
I personally read many stories as a kid with what I later realized were terrible messages to pass on to a kid. Cinderella was a poor girl who pretended to be someone else in order to become a trophy wife. Hansel and Gretel burned someone alive in the oven for revenge. My favorite book was "The Blondie" (it was from my native country) and displayed what I now understand as pure racism. The whole story revolved around how pure and kind was the blond fair-skinned girl and how evil her dark sisters (the darkest, the meanest).
As a kid I was also exposed to a lot of violence while being taught nationalistic stories about physical tortures of national heroes. Let alone some traditional songs that came up with some very creative ways to die.
Yet I'm here now and I believe that all this exposure was something that aided me in becoming a freethinker. A protective bubble isn't the answer. If you are not exposed to something, you cannot know what it is about and therefore you cannot fight it. Initially, one has to be exposed to a diverse range of ideas. This is what will eventually create contradicting concepts in one's mind, which will force the individual to examine them more closely. The key word here is diverse. If you only read a genre, or articles from a specific school of thought... you will never know what the other side has to say.
Thanks for the response :-)
It has nothing to do with protective bubble, really. There is no mentioning of censorship or banning. Only criticism and suggestion why this movie is psychologically detrimental propaganda.
Banning or censoring anything is an infinite patchwork that never solves social problems andd focuses on effects.
If we want to solve social ailments we must focus on reshaping social conditions in its roots - focusing on causes not effects.
About "free" thinking. If we become open minded and cognitively less biased is caused by mixture of many deterministic and random events that have happened throughout our lives. Simply, we are lucky to have developed ability for "free" thinking. Especially in this society which does not support it. You may think that these fairy tales contributed to your certain cognitive ability but there may be completely different experiences that contributed to it. You may be one between thousands of kids who read those same fairy tales or more and they have not helped them to develop more individual way of thinking like you.
Also, kids cannot really fight something and they don't have very developed ability for critical and analytical thinking. They are also emotionally immature so they are very sensitive to any indoctrination by media, adverts, movies, entertainment, books etc. It is adult caregivers role to protect them from it. It has nothing to do with being in the bubble. When those kids grow up a bit they are free to explore other information.
I totally agree with you on this one. And my exposure on these stories certainly does not mean that they were what caused me to develop a more individual way of thinking. This is actually a very good point.
Personally, I was exposed to many different (intellectual) stimuli while growing up. Which is why I think that its a very helpful practice to teach children how to think for themselves. Most parents tend to hide certain realities from their children- they avoid talking openly about death, sex, religion and other sensitive subjects. My parents were open about all subjects and I was allowed to read books and watch movies about any topic.
Kids who are exposed to these stories are not necessarily improving their critical analysis skills, but kids who are exposed to a wide range of ideologies including these are very likely to, as there will come a point where one concept defies the other. The human mind mainly works with comparisons, thus the more reference points, the broader the perspective.
Interesting point about referencing information.
You had very cool parents who seem to be great role models for you.
So I take it you weren't a fan of the series? Just kidding. I never noticed this aspect of Harry Potter. You have opened my eyes. I am following you now and looking forward to more posts like this.
Glad to hear a positive response. I was ready to be bashed ;-)
NP, I follow you back
As a child of abusive parent, I too found Harry's emotional state completely absurd. It was like the abuse was only physical, and so when the physical constraints were removed, viola! Harry is all better.
As a lover of fantasy, I found the Harry Potty world of magic to be absurd. The author just took ideas from many magic systems and just smashed them all together willy nilly. There was no reality in her magic system.
There is some fan conjecture that Harry Potty is a Horcrux.
And we know what the Diary/Horcrux did to Ginny in just one school year.
Imagine what Harry Potty, as a Horcrux would do to a very nice family, that he was forced upon for some 14 years.
Great points. I so much agree with you!
WOW!!! that is some out of the box analysis of HP series
Lol thanks
I have read your blog.
Amazing post brother, good luck.
Help me to share this blog.
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Thanks. I resteemed your post
Welcome brother.
With pleasure
Inspiring idea, we may have a review on HP from a different aspect.
:-)
Nce post @logic, ya my son n my daughter always playing with the broom and woodstick, sometimes they point at me. Lol
I get the impression that this post is based solely on watching the first movie in the series. I HATE that movie... but not for any of the reasons you mentioned. It leaves out so much from the book that it felt like a mindless, shallow "cash-grab" to me. In fact, I hated it so much that I refused to see any of the following movies for many years.
The books are so much deeper and better than that movie. It does not sound like these books would be your "cup of tea" but I feel you would need to read them in order to truly understand the cultural phenomenon that they became.
After reading all of the books, I finally allowed myself to watch the movies. they got progressively deeper and better but I still prefer the books.
If the only benefit of the books was that they lead to a generation of children (including my own) falling in love with reading, they would be worth their weight in gold. But honestly they did much more.
These are kids books. They require quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. If you can do that, they are filled with pretty important and inspiring messages.
I actually agree with your initial premise. Kids should not watch the first Harry Potter movie... until they have read the books.
However, I see great value in kids reading the books... but that is up to individual parents to decide.
The thing is that kids usually have problems with differentiating between their belief and reality.
Thank you for your comment. Check up my responses to other comments here. They could answer to your points. Don't want to retype same things. Besides it takes ages on android :-D
Now there is something we agree on 100%. It sucks responding to comments on a mobile device!!! ;)
meep
Don't you ever say anything els... oh never mind. ;)
meep
Man, honestly, I don't care what you post ... But you are BACK!! That's why I am so HAPPY! Welcome back!! <3
by the way, is it appropriate to use "<3" here? I am not familiar with this 'expression' so do let me know ... LOL
Thanks! Great to see that such old users like you are still here!
The heart symbol? Why would not it be allowed. It is literally a lovely symbol :-)
it's a heart? I thought it is a kiss! you know, lips ... haha! I am ignorant ...
We are ultimately ignorant! :-)
When did competition start getting such a bad rap? Isn't innovation born of competition?
Not really. And that is the problem on both sides.
Strictest competition vs Participation trophies.
Both ways have serious problems.
If all the girls go after the jocks, then those who tend toward brains rather then brawns are shit out of luck.
Why bother? Why even try?
In any one competition, there are winners and loser and those who shouldn't even bother trying.
So, in order for their to be competition, you have to have a group that is pretty much on a level playing field (weight classes in boxing) and all very interested / motivated in that arena of competition.
To place any one competition across a school, creates a class of why bothers.
Innovation is not born of competition. Innovation is someone seeing something and then have a stroke of insight (or a muse whispering in the ear) about an improvement on such.
Not allowing that person to take the better idea and produce it in "competition" is what stops innovation.
Competition doesn't create the innovation, but its absence blocks it.
Nope it is born out of creativity and ingenuity. It has been proven that cooperation is many times much more efficient for ingenuity than competition.
I think you may be reading too far into a FANTASY NOVEL... It's not indoctrination or brainwashing, it's a fairy tale.
On a side note, there are plenty of fan theories that talk about it all being in Harry's mind. Because he is always locked in the closet, he imagines a world where he is adored and powerful.
Just because a genre is fairy tale does not mean it cannot have ability to indoctrinate and brainwash. The indoctrination here is unintended as any story that directly reflects value system disorder of our culture/society. What is in this story is considered normal in our culture. From scientific perspective it's psychologically unhealthy behaviour.
I have to strongly disagree with you.
Actually, I think that the mindset you represent is the primary reason the western civilization will eventually collapse. It's an approach driven by pure rationality and completely blind to anything that is outside of this realm.
What J. K. Rowling successfully did is tap into essential archetypes - something children can relate to without any prior knowledge. Juxtaposing this with "rational and scientifically educated point of view" does not make any sense.
Well if logic and scientific method don't make sense to you then it is pointless to have a debate with you :-) Logic is fundamental for coherent conversation.
About archetypes. There is no such thing. It is also obsolete idea created by philosophers who knew little about human behaviour. No one is born with some innate information about the world.
If these children can tap into it,bit is because they have been already conditioned with such information before from the environment (since birth).
And people like Carl Jung are obsolete. Sure.
Your ignorance is quite ridiculous. Thus further discussion is pointless.
It's quite amazing what you did: emphasize the importance of scientific approach and then demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of human achievements in this area.
Did I say that Jung is obsolete (besides that a person cannot be obsolete). I was talking about archetype. You have just used logical fallacy.
"It's quite amazing what you did: emphasize the importance of scientific approach and then demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of human achievements in this area"
And yet another logical fallacy called strawman fallacy.
Besides Jung was psychiatrist not a scientist. Jung ideas are 100 years old just like Freud and most of them are considered pseudoscience or philosophy rather something based on scientific research with use of scientific method. As much as they pioneered in some psychoanalytical research, their ideas were fantasies with no backing in any evidence which anyone with minimum knowledge about science of human behaviour knows about (human behavioral biology and evolution, genetics, neuroscience, epigenetics etc). Just because they thought it is true does not make it so. People also believed that Earth is flat and it did not make it so.
It seems that regardless of inability to have intelligent conversation (without logical fallacies), you also have no clue about discoveries in science of human behaviour since Jung.
"Thus further discussion is pointless"
Yes, you accurately repeated my observation.
I must say you know nothing.