Contrary to the environmentalist cry, propaganda is the most damaging pollutant. No other force has greater power to ravage and wreak havoc on our mental environment. The damage created by this mind pollution is even more harmful to young, impressionable minds who innocently look to their elders for their education and formation. Take children’s magazines that teach their young readers that “overpopulation is the greatest danger to the earth” for example.
Children’s Literature?
A recent issue of the children’s magazine Zoobooks ran just such a propaganda-filled article titled “Population Pressures.” The two page spread was dedicated to any and all topics of ecological gloom and doom typically accredited to the undeniable fact that the world just has too many people. All of the earth’s woes — from too many cars, too many pesticides, polluted air and water, barren soil, shrinking wilderness, deforestation and ozone depletion — are blamed on the same cause: the planet we call home is too crowded.
This seems like pretty hefty, not to mention bleak reading material for 5 to 12 year olds (their target audience) to digest. The Zoobooks website at www.zoobooks.com claims that their materials are “educational fun” and are “great for both beginning and middle level readers.” I may be missing something here, but where exactly is the “educational fun” in erroneously reporting that in the year 2150, if present population trends continue, there may be as many as 694 billion people cluttering up the planet? This figure staggers my mind. What kind of mental images would it drag up for the average 5-year-old? Even the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) wouldn’t suggest those kinds of outrageous numbers in their publications!
As if scaring children with mind boggling statistics weren’t bad enough, the article implies that family planning is the only way to stave off further overcrowding. Smaller families must be the wave of the future. The burden of saving mother earth from an infestation of people depends upon the reproductive choices made by today’s youth. The number of children today’s current teenagers choose to have in their reproductive years will be the deciding factor in global population stabilization or explosion. And Zoobooks takes pride in the fact these materials are used by teachers in classrooms? Presumably, no first or second grader’s education is quite complete if their mind hasn’t been biased against having children, all for the exalted good of saving the planet.
Who’ll Buy the Magazines?
A “kid-friendly” magazine which spouts overpopulation as the root of all the planet’s ills is hardly my idea of the perfect gift for a young child or a classroom. What is Zoobooks’ answer for children on how to ease this pressure? Simple. Get rid of the people, It is ironic that a magazine which depends upon subscribers for its survival should want to eliminate future subscribers. Bogus stories with exaggerated materials and ideas may cause this publication to go out of business. It will be no great loss. There is plenty of quality educational reading material available.
