> The early 1980s were a really weird moment in American history.
I don't see anything about what you've described (other than the specific subjects of D&D and rock music) that identifies the 80s. The reaction you describe is typical of all time periods; the same thing is happening all over all the time. For some period in the 90s-00s it was violent video games.
The 80s really were weird. Especially growing up in an Evangelical household. Reagan and all the almost flawless propaganda that accompanied his administration, the Japanese electronics boom, the endless stream of 80s style propaganda action movies, the huge surge in religious upswelling at that moment against the godless communists, the space program, Star Wars (the military program and the movies), endless cartoons reinforcing these values and ideas down at a child's level (G.I. Joe, Transformers, Gobots, etc.) the emergence of video games, hair bands, the endless parade of spy movies, and then spy movies where video games played a prominent role. It's pretty remarkable how many popular franchises were started and established in the 80s that are still wildly popular today and the thousands more that have vanished. I get a sense that it far surpassed the decade prior or after in that respect.
It was a really special kind of holistic life-pastiche that I don't think really existed before or sense. The closest I can think of is the late 50s early 60s as being quite so cohoesive and holistic.
I experienced it as a child growing up, so my take on the 80s is from that angle, but when I walk around the toy section at my local store these days, it's like a pale shadow of the vibrancy from that time -- most of the really popular toys are still more or less the ones that came into popularity when I was a kid. It seems like most of the big franchises from the 90s (the last time I really had awareness of the toy section) have died off or been replaced.
My wife is South Korean, and when she grew up, her country was just emerging from a long dictatorship. The popular media was heavily controlled and given their neighbor, was almost a more intense version of what we had in the 80s. In fact, I'm frequently surprised at how much of our 1980s American culture was wholesale imported into hers, but not our 1970s or 1990s culture.
I'd be curious as to your reasoning behind the "endless cartoons reinforcing these values and ideas down at a child's level (G.I. Joe, Transformers, Gobots, etc.)" statement.
What values and ideas were they reinforcing that made them examples of the weirdness of the 80s?
I can get the USA! from GIJoe, but the others that I recall as a kid seem to just fit into the typical good vs evil theme that is older than the written word.
This isn't just childhood memories either as many of my favorites from childhood are on Netflix and have been recently revisited.
Like I said, just curious.
I agree about the vibrancy though. My memories of childhood seemed much interesting in some terms such as toys, Saturday morning and after school afternoon cartoons then what's available for my kids today. They are out there, but it seems you have to work to find good ones when I had multiple options to choose from.
1. There are good and evil, only. The role of good is to fight evil, using violence.
2. The origin of evil is either irredeemable people or irredeemable ideologies. They cannot be reasoned with and do not have internal logic. The only way to end evil is by force.
3. Wishy washy good guys negotiate, but it never works. Manly good guys shoot first. That works.
4. If you are not succeeding with violence, use bigger, shinier violence.
5. Violence solves the problem, and once it's solved, it's over, and everything goes back to happy.
The unrealistic settings are due to the narrative demands of action-oriented storytelling. If you're watching the Ninja Turtles or Superman or whatever, you want to see the good guys kicking the bad guy's butts.
If a show is about engaging the bad guy in a big moral debate and realizing there are no good guys or bad guys, it would just be lame -- not as much entertainment value.
That being said, I love shows that have moral ambiguity. Four that immediately come to mind are Death Note, Game of Thrones, Puella Magi, and Gunslinger Girl. But that's not everyone's cup of tea. And even though that's my taste, I don't want all my entertainment to be in shades of gray -- I watch Fairy Tail, too.
I get all that, but to me it fits in line with my good vs evil being older than the written word thought. Most of what you wrote I can find in a history book.
I dispute that this is really all that ancient a view.
Christianity, for example, regards violence as only useful backed by supernatural aid, and doesn't see it as the only way to fight, only assigns irredeemable evil to supernatural entities, nominally prefers peace, and does not expect human agency (exploding or otherwise) to be sufficient alone. The 80s could well be viewed as a repudiation of christian ideas of evil.
Well, I don't have sources on hand but I'm fairly certain that what you describe is not necessarily a Christian invention. Many of the stories I recall reading that pre-date Christianity have similar themes.
Well, G.I. Joe was an older propaganda tool from the 60s, but it was substantially rebooted in the 80s as a high tech international global police force of sorts. I think this re-envisioning of the toy line fell in line with the kind of moralistic, American technology will give us the edge because we're smarter and better people than the also sophisticated but not as quite godless "bad guy" -- who happened to be a kind of blend of authoritarianism, terrorism and other enemies of the free and democratic peoples of the world (protected by the very American G.I. Joes).
Transformers are an interesting robot spin on the same theme. Let's be honest, the Autobots were stationed out of America and were largely defending America from the Decepticons. They were super high tech robots and fit nicely into the Star Wars (defense) theme of the Reagan administration.
I agree with the good vs evil spin on those shows. But I think that the actors who filled the good and evil roles were largely filled with American and Soviet/Nazi/Terrorist idealized stereotypes.
I'd add that in the cartoons the motivation of the evil archetype was always nonsensical and unclear. The Decepticons for example were always after energy resources and converting them to energon cubes. Yet the Autobots never seemed to have energy procurement problems. I think this was fed by the larger propaganda of the communists as being nonsensical, vague "bad guys" who were acting as constant aggressors.
MASK, Inspector Gadget, He Man, Danger Mouse, to some point Thundercats, Gobots, etc. all kind of fit this mold. Cartoons from the 70s and 90s largely don't really reflect this kind of good organization vs. nonsensical evil organization zeitgeist of the time.
Well, like I said, I get the GIJoe bit. And I agree for the most part, I just don't necessarily agree with the government propaganda part. Using nationalism and patriotism as a means to sell toys? Sure.
I can't agree with the Transformers as much. I don't recall anything specifically stating they were in America other than suggestions in the dialogue. With redubbing the show could have been placed just about anywhere only limited because of the appearance of the main human characters. I believe there was a British version as well. I could agree that maybe the Reagan administration co-opted Transformers for their own use (much like they did with the Star Wars name but I doubt Lucas was a government propagandist) but you seem to be suggesting that the Transformers exists for the benefit of Reagan's Star Wars program. That's the bit I'm curious about because I just don't see that. It seems too conspiracy theory to me. My reasoning is that Transformers was a part Japanese effort and originally based off existing Japanese toys. It was essentially a Japanese company entering the US market. To say they were propaganda for the benefit of the US government is a stretch to me.
I agree with the stereotypes, but I would say they were more of the typical good vs evil stereotypes. Just because they matched the good vs evil actors of the day doesn't necessarily mean they were created with that in mind. That seems some form of bias to me.
The reason the Autobots didn't have energy issues like the Decepticons was because they weren't attempting to conquer. They only required what was needed to survive. The Decepticons were gathering resources to destroy the Autobots on the planet, conquer said planet, and then return to Cybertron to finish the war. Works for me. I think it was the major plot point in several episodes.
I disagree with your final statement. There are many modern examples of more-or-less the same themes of good vs evil with similar stereotypes, archetypes, and plots. It's just a lack of interest or failure in connecting them to modern events.
I just don't buy the propaganda for government benefit in the Saturday morning cartoons from my childhood. Now, propaganda for me to want the toys they were selling? Sure enough, and it works.
Well outside of the first generation of transformers being made up of largely common cars you'd see on American roads and American military equipment (not a lot of Mercedes, Opels, Peugeots in the mix) and taking place in what appeared to be the American South West, desert with small mountains and valleys (with nearby American style suburbs the human characters lived in)....they changed this later, with a larger variety of settings. The Animated movie felt like it took place in somewhere, Europe.
Yeah Bumblebee was a VW Bug and Jazz was a Porsche, but there really weren't any other European cars in the show and both of those cars were pretty common in the U.S. Most importantly, Optimus Prime was very clearly an American style semi-truck rather than a British Lorry or Euro style truck.
I guess I wasn't clear though. Those shows really felt like they were at least reinforcing the prevailing propaganda, at a kids level. Part of this was no doubt marketing savvy rather than Government control, but it really made the propaganda machine pervasive, from young to old, top to bottom.
The modern movies are very much an extension of this. The Autobots are allied with Americans, operating out of a base provided by Americans. There's the occasional Aussie or Brit, but by and large it's all American. The cars are all GM cars. It feels natural because it's just an updating of what the Transformers were already doing.
It was brilliant. It tapped into so many threads floating around during the 80s and just pulled them together. High tech robots that fought evil and turned into blue collar American trucks! Bad ASS.
Well, from my memories most of the cars in the cartoon Transformers had little in comparison to real-life cars. I viewed them as more generic truck, generic sports car, and the like. Sure, some of them matched fairly well to real cars but for the most part they did not. Plus I guess it depends on how many American style cars made it into foreign markets.
I agree that if one lived in a country that didn't have deserts with small mountains it might be difficult to relate, but there are many areas of the world that appear much the same as the American southwest. Especially in the generic way it was portrayed in the show. Although, there's a point in there about the style of housing as I'm sure that varies quite a bit.
In the end, since it was a toy line intended to enter the American market, you are probably more correct in that than I am.
The modern movies don't count because what you describe is Michael Bay, not Transformers. The themes you describe in the movies is similar themes in just about every movie Michael Bay directed. A large number of the vehicles are GM cars, due to money I'm sure, but I would say the lineup of vehicles is more diverse than how you describe them in the cartoons.
As for your last bit, if you are stating that in lines of marketing to sell toys, I agree. If it is propaganda to benefit government something or other programs, I fail to see how you've supported that thought even though that seems to be what you are trying to say.
Yeah but Bumblebee was clearly a VW Beetle and he was one of the main autobot characters, Starscream et al were clearly US fighter jets and they were decepticon characters.
For some reason 80s cartoons often had a "moral lesson" tacked on to the end. Whether it was due to FCC regulations or just pandering to parents, I don't know. Some of the lessons were common sense, and some were just bizarre. Most were clearly phoned in. ("Key kids, don't do bad things, mm'K?") The comments on here about the 80s aren't saying they were good or bad, just "weird." Having to watch B grade propaganda after every cartoon definitely qualifies.
That was the beginning of government interference. Over time it started to be mandated that the broadcast networks had to have x percentage of "educational" value in their lineup of children's programs.
The results was the gradual removal of children's programming to the point that my cherished Saturday morning and after school cartoons disappeared.
I don't see anything about what you've described (other than the specific subjects of D&D and rock music) that identifies the 80s. The reaction you describe is typical of all time periods; the same thing is happening all over all the time. For some period in the 90s-00s it was violent video games.
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