When you read, watch, or listen to a creative work, you are having a mind-sharing moment with the creator of that work. It’s a good idea to not spend too much time or perhaps to not spend any time at all in the mind of a bad person. I have come to view books and movies not as stories in an of themselves but as creative expressions of their writers/directors. I find that I now choose to reject the imaginations of a deranged lunatic rather than following the masses in eating-up popular garbage media. Some authors and directors have ways of creating unnecessary dilemmas, unreasonably tragic/shocking situations, and impossible circumstances to justify otherwise morally-reprehensible character decisions and scenes they want to show you. I used to be affected by those scenes. Now I sit in judgment over those creators and refuse to consume that type of media.
Suppose a cruel sadist invited you to enter into their mind for a couple of hours so you could watch their imagination like you would a movie. Would you do it? How about the same offer from a sexual pervert? When you watch a movie or read a book, you are viewing the imagination of the person who wrote it. You do not have to accept the story as given because it is not real even if it portrays real events. The portrayal on screen or in text is still an imagination from a human mind. If the story contains bad stuff or goes in directions it ought not, that is not just the way things are but rather is a deliberate choice by the creator.
An extreme example of this is the horror film genre. I do not watch horror films. But I have to question the wisdom and judgment of those who do. And I have no choice but to condemn the moral stature of those who create them. Only severely defiled minds create horror films. What does it say of one who watches them? What kind of person could find entertainment in the depraved imaginations of a severely defiled mind? Who is a better person for having spent time in such a mind? Whose mind is not permanently violated and tainted by sharing minds with a violent pervert? These are worthy questions to consider.
The horror genre is more overt in its evil than other genres. There are many vile imaginations of the human mind contained in many works of literature and film considered to be more mainstream and culturally popular. Many children’s books and movies contain wicked events, choices, actions, situations, and so on. Exposing a child’s mind to depraved circumstances is not justifiable simply because the outcome ends up being good. There are things to which children should not be exposed – period. There are things to which we should not be exposed – period.
As I have reviewed more and more children’s literature, I have come to see the political and moral views of the authors expressed in them. There is a lot more covert garbage in children’s media than parents might suspect. We shouldn’t just allow our kids to read or watch stuff simply because it’s culturally acceptable, or the creator is popular, or the creative work received awards. In fact, if a creepy person whom we would never let near our children, spent time developing a portfolio of works to build credibility so that they could get covertly perverted material to our kids, we would probably find that predatory. If you wouldn’t let your child alone in another room with a pervert, why would you let your child read a book by that same person?
Even in books and movies where the content is 99% good, it is a common practice to introduce a bad element that amounts to no more than a blip in the overall story but plants a seed and embeds itself in a child’s memory. In my experience, it was usually the scenes or elements of a story that were the most shocking or disturbing that stuck with me longest after consuming the material. I have no doubt but that this is intentional. Grooming involves breaking down barriers slowly and with the appearance of innocence. Books and movies that are mostly good but have a single violating moment are a form of grooming.
So let’s be careful whose mind we share and whose imagination we watch. And let’s be even more careful about whose minds and imaginations we let our children spend time in. Innocence cannot be regained. Prevention is the only remedy. There’s plenty of good stuff to think about, plenty of good minds to share, and plenty of good influences to experience.