Does Our Culture Destroy Imagination?

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, by Anthony Esolen

 
 
This book had such a provocative title, that I was eager to read it.  I requested it from the library, and as soon as I began reading, I became more intrigued.  Esolen writes with a tongue-in-cheek style on the premise that since "children are our greatest resource", and since resources are valuable because they are "good, solid, dependable, and inert," he proceeds to reason why and how we need to kill the imagination in our children (obviously arguing for the opposite point all along).  We want, he argues, children -a society- that is predictable, maintainable, and manageable.  "A vast enterprise like McDonald's can only function by ensuring...the solid, dependable, inert routine.  ...We must then, kill the imagination... subject them all to the most efficient and humane techniques to fit them for the world in which they will live, a world of shopping malls, all the same everywhere, packaged food, all the same everywhere, paper-pushing all the same, mass entertainment all the same, politics all the same."  (Intro. p. xiii)
 
He writes with such wit, wisdom, insight, and profound allegations against our current culture.  "Our pop culture isn't really culture at all, only mass entertainment." p.157
 
I am not going to share the ten things, the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, that he claims destroy a child's imagination.  One of the complaints I read on Amazon about the book was that he could have listed out the ten ways in a much shorter way than saying so much about each point.  But I think that is exactly the point. In his writing, he shares so many examples of writers, explorers, heroes from across the ages and across the globe that spur the reader to desire more, to kindle the imagination.  All that he wrote needed to be partnered with his list in order to see and feel and desire the cultivation and expansion of imagination -not only in kids, but in ourselves as well!  There is a world of wonder to learn and explore and he expertly ignites that desire in the reader -to expect more, reach higher, think harder, feel deeper...
 
In a biting indictment against most television shows watched today, he says, "After years of watching the comic face of nihilism, your children will come to respect nothing, love nothing, believe in nothing, and long for nothing." (p.157)
 
Regarding our culture's negative attitude towards both books and children: "Books are bulky and inconvenient, like rocks, and trees, and rivers, and life.  It occurs to me that everything that can be said about the inconvenience of books can be said about the inconvenience of children.  They too take up space, are of no immediate practical use, and are of interest to only a few people, and present all kinds of problems." (intro. p. x)
 
I love what he says about motherhood: "...but she is always the mother, and her love for her child, even when it is shot through all the flaws of her character, will be a human love.  It will be far from perfect.  But it will be something real." (p. 210)
 
Another issue he raises is how our culture makes everyone a hero, flattening the significance of an authentic hero. "Democratize heroism. Everyone is a hero, and simply for doing...the ordinary tasks of living as a half-decent person.  Does your mother fix you breakfast?  She is a hero.  ...If everyone is a hero, then no one is a hero; and genuine heroes will go unnoticed in all the mindless self-congratulation." (p.148)
 
The final accusation against current culture that destroys a child's imagination is to deny the existence of the Transcendent, namely the Creator God.  "We can suppose, then, that to remove from the child the possibility of praise - to rob him of any intimation of the Being that lends existence itself to all things that exist- would be like confining his mind to a room with a low ceiling. 'This is all there is' we say, 'and don't ask us where it is going, or what it means, because it is going to destruction only, and it means nothing.  Now build a cathedral in honor of that.. compose a love song for what cannot love.  Just try.  When your head gets too sore from all the bumping against the ceiling, you'll learn better, and be a good useful citizen.'" (p. 231)
 
And that, my friend, is a book well worth the read!