"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?"
- Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790
This greatly reminds me of a diatribe written by some man of the 19th century (US American I believe) against the popularity of the printing press and books in general. His contention was that through the mass production of books that children would lose their ability to remember things, that they would lose mental capacity to store information, and that they would be dependent slaves on the written word. I wish I could find that little piece. It is quite amusing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the two charges against Socrates was "corrupting the youth of Athens".
ReplyDelete