I asked why and she said, "Because it's bad and I don't want my kids watching it."
At that time, I had thought of Barney as just a stupid TV show. I knew a couple of alternate verses to the 'I luv yu' song and that was all the connection I had with the show. But soon after this incident, I sat down and watched the show. I was horrified.
The reason for my horror was simple. Three things stick out in my mind: the conformity, the dumbing-down, and the plagerism. Sure there were other reasons that are there too, but these are the three most important to me.
Plagerism is always a touchy subject. I have been accused of plagerism when I did not commit it, and so I am always willing to give people the benifit of the doubt. But this went way too far.
I will confess I didn't catch onto it at first. The alternate verses had come easily, but I didn't realize until someone happened to sing "This old man" in my presence. It had been years since I sang that song and the first connection in my head had been to the 'luv' song. This was not good. Where was our culture going?
The second thing that struck me was the conformity. I have always been something of an individualist and conformity always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The show left me with a really bad taste and I went searching through the house to find something to get rid of the bad taste. Were these children, or did they have robots playing the parts? It was very hard to tell because everybody did everything together at the orders of the purple thing on my screen. It was 1984 all over, with Barney as Big Brother.
The most important thing that scared me was the dumbing down. Let me explain what I mean by this term. I have been watching Sesame Street as of late. It was basically because I was bored and there was nothing else on. But I noticed that Sesame Street has some things directed towards adult as well as children. It is a show that adults can sit down and watch with their children and not be bored. This cannot be said of Barney and Friends. Most parents will let their child watch Barney alone because they do not want to sit there and watch it; it is too boring for them. But what does this mean for the poor child who watches it by themself? They will probably go into school not knowing the basics of letters and numbers. The show has been dumbed down for the three year old. The cast members, although they may be fifteen or sixteen, still act as if they were three. That doesn't give a three year old much to strive for.
It is also my fervent belief that shows such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers teach children not only to explore the wonders of their own world, but also to explore the world of the imagination. Barney teaches children to listen only to him and not to explore the inner and outer worlds on their own. There must be some way to stop this dumbing down and to stop this monstrosity from ruining the next generation.
This is where I enter. The fight against Barney must be done one person at a time until the critical mass is reached. Each person who subscribes to the tenemant that Barney is bad is one less person who supports the purple dinosaur. I wish to help in the fight. That is why I am interested in joining TRES corps and the Jihad.
Why do I wish to join in the fight? I have little cousins. I'm the oldest cousin on both sides of the family and I have cousins that are two, three, four years old. Some of them even like Barney. It is that fight for them that I hope I will be able to help in soon. Like that stupid bumper sticker, "We're not inheriting the Earth from our parents, we're borrowing it for our children." If I can make it better for my children or grandchildren or even my little cousins today, I'll fight. I'll fight so I can give the younger ones a world in which they are free from the conformity (both physical and intellectual) that the purple one has brought to this world. I'll fight so I can give them a world in which they can explore their world free from the dumbing down of it. I will fight because I want to make the world a freer place.
Barney must die, all else is irrevalent. [tm]