For the last few decades we have been conducting an interesting social experiment in North America. We have been working on the creation of a new variety of human being I will call homo sapiens teenager consumerensis. This being has been cultivated by our society and the process began in earnest with the growth of commercial television in the late 1950s. It carries on to the present ever stronger and more effectively. Teenagers were trained to have special needs ... special foods, beverages, clothing, music, films, etc. They are divided into market targets and the markets are changed seasonally in order to sell new products. Once this enterprise was really rolling the eight year olds were persuaded that they were teenagers already and then the twenty-five year olds were convinced that they were still teenagers. This experiment is hurtling on apace using some of the most creative minds in our society and every modern technological and psychological tool, sparing no expense. Often sex, violence and greed are exploited to help sell products including TV shows and films.

For the first time in the history of our species the most vital, active years of a person's growing life are dedicated to one major goal - self indulgence. From a business point of view it has and continues to be an overwhelming success. At the same time automation, downsizing and shipping jobs overseas has taken meaningful work away from young people. Except for so-called McJobs, business and labour can find nothing important for young people to do ... except to buy. Is it any wonder some of them turn to anti-social activities such as drug dealing and violence.

The key to this state of affairs is commercial television. It is not so much public television. It is probably no coincidence that other continents which do not have such advanced commercial television do not have such advanced teenage problems. If one could do a global map of drug abuse, teen violence and other such problems it would likely be the same map as homo sapiens teenager consumerensis. I predict that any countries that follow in North America's footsteps from a commercial TV point of view will develop the same problems. It is part of the package.

from: http://batemanideas.com/ & http://robertbateman.ca/

Thank you Teo for the disturbing post, which sadly is very true.

I have admired Robert Bateman and his work for many years, and I give him credit for his outspokeness.

Inda

Thank you for posting the information Teo.

We are creating a monster, and this is very scary.
There seems to be no discipline in schools or even at home any longer. Everyone is sitting on some sort of battery operated device all the time which has gotten completely out of hand. I could ramble on and on and on...

I love the image Inda. We are creating a society very close to the edge. If we don't take care now we may fall.

Love,
Sue

quote:

: http://batemanideas.com/ & http://robertbateman.ca/

I read trough this website and found all the information very interesting, but also quite disturbing.
Thank you for sharing it.

I have a few of Robert Bateman's books and I truly love his work.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Howard Thurman

Let us hope that our young people will be alive to enjoy nature and all its beauty and mystery.

Love,
Sue

Thank you Teo.

I am truly disturbed about the freedom our young people have to do whatever they like. We are creating a very scary world.

I find Robert Bateman's website and all his information very interesting.

Sincerely,
Gisele

Thank you for the post Teo.



I have seen some of Bateman's paintings and his books and I absolutely adore his artwork.
We do have a post abot him under' Visual Beautiful Images.'

What he says is quite right, but also very frightening. We have allowed to let things go quite far and I don't know how we can correct it.

Thank you for the websites.

Love,
yoko

I like Robert Bateman and his art.
I respect everything that he says.
It is very worriesome what kind of a species we are creating. It may be too late to do anything about it. Everything is geared to profit and making money. It will be difficult to remove unnecessary items from the stores. Billion dollar companies have the power to keep their products on the shelves.
I have to be very careful with LeeAnne. I will make sure that she will appreciate nature with all the plants and animals that we still have.

Love,
Vicky