a modern definition of history appears to be “whatever makes you happy and safe.” modern students’ sensibilities cannot be challenged. how dare someone ask them to think the question “why?”!
a publisher, it is reported, is updating a famous anti-semite’s work to make edits to them to “sensitize” the text. no, the text is not mein kampf, rather it is the works of the great child author, mr. roald dahl. vanityfair.com
one would think that any respectable “sensitivity” editor, knowing the author’s background, would decline the project. the truth is that these editors appreciate that income and wealth is the world’s true comfort blanket.
mr. roald dahl’s works were great in their time. the movies, especially the original willie wonka with mr. gene wilder, were icing on the top. while mr. dahl held some disparaging views about jewish people, his literary art is remarkable. his children’s works do not reveal his personal problematic bias. like most great authors, i would assume that he tortured himself in crafting every word, every sentence, and every paragraph. he created masterpiece texts that should be respected.
we must appreciate that mr. dahl wrote his books at a particular time and place in the world. since then, many things have changed. for instance, in willie wonka & the chocolate factory, there was a child mike tv whose problem was watching too much television. today, a trait for that character would be excessive video game playing. mike fortnite? given the present child obesity epidemic, the character, augustus gloomp, would be perceived as a normal child. how dare you mr. wonka make fun of him!
as much as mr. dahl’s books are fantasy, they also have nuggets of history. a child reading the original texts may ask questions. a big question they may ask is “why?”
in asking “why?” the child may learn something in the original text rather than be comforted by modern text while sucking down a calorie loaded cookie-dough milk shake from a fast food restaurant, they may realize that children, at some point in history, were not obese. they may realized and explore the question as to what happened. they may discover the health problem associated with the modern diet. with the sanitized version, they may get thirsty and order up another shake.
will these children reading these new books realize that the propaganda they are reading is truly a product of unrestrained capitalism. a book publisher is willing to commit literary blasphemy all for the sake of making money. they know that schools, libraries and book stores are going to be receptive to the new books. these institutions will provide little blow back, if any, to this apostasy. in this instance, woke-ism assisted capitalism to create new products for consumption (and sadly landfills.)
in sum, there is a great cost to society when capitalism and woke-ism meet. in this instance, children’s ability to think is a casualty. history will be lost for the sake of comfort. this exercise further demonstrates the brilliance of the master of the universe’s command to “… not add to the word which i command you, nor diminish from it…” deuteronomy 4:2. or, as the great mc hammer said, “can’t touch this.”
be well!!
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