Kal-L writes:Clever observation… indeed Fredric Wertham, this psychiatrist wanabee, did a lot of harm to comics industry in the 50’s.
We seem to go through this periodically: some opportunist in the field of psychology sells out his profession in pursuit of the fast buck and publishes a book aimed at the moms and dads of the world. In Wertham's case, he handed parents an easy "explanation" for juvenile delinquency...never mind that it's more likely caused by
bad parenting, it's so much easier to throw comics on a bonfire than to examine your own failings as a parent. (We're seeing the same thing now with the focus on video games, movies and cable TV...which I grant you are generally horrible stuff, but with a little hands-on parenting a kid can be well-adjusted enough to handle all of it).
A few years later, it was Dr. Spock and his "ground-breaking" notion that it's okay to let your kid run the household since you don't want to damage his/her precious little psyche...thus producing a generation of self-absorbed creeps who think the world owes them something (and who, incidentally, all seem to hate their parents anyway!). Wertham appealed to parents' fears, Spock to their wishes (who wants to discipline kids? It's hard!) but in the end they both told people what they wanted to hear, and sat back and counted their royalties. Never mind how many minds and lives they screwed up in the process.
TELLE writes:Far from being a "wannabe", Wertham had a distinguished practice and was quite influential within his profession and within the US judicial system. The blame for the implosion of the industry in the 50s can also be placed in the hands of the cowardly and conservative major, non-horror publishers, as well as political opportunists like US Senator Kefauver, among many other figures. If Wertham convinced people, they wanted to be convinced. He also has a blog!
Yes, that's how it usually goes. After the glory-hound "expert" publishes his hysteria-inducing "study," a gaggle of vainglorious Senators start hearings to whip up hysteria a bit more and show the voting public that, by gum, their elected officials are on top of the issue.
Wow, hearings on comics, movies, video games...thanks for making America safe, Senators! Meanwhile 50 years after Wertham we still have runaway crime, crumbling city infrastructures, budgetary boondoggles and poverty. It's a pathetic cycle of blustering theatrics that goes on forever, and gets us nowhere.
Of course, many aspects of the early, vigilante-like Superman myth, not to mention the all-knowing, all-seeing, Big-Brother aspect of Superman are indeed fascistic and speak to a near universal drive in humanity towards order and control (thankfully usually balanced out by a will to freedom, cooperation, and anarchy)
You know, I never know how to answer accusations of facism on the part of Superman. Technically is it "facism" if it's not government-sponsored? Superman acts as a free agent in those early stories, taking the law into his own hands and applying not the rule of the land but his own notions of right and wrong. If everyone else followed suit that would lead not to facism but to anarchy. There were occasions when government officials were the bad guys who Superman half-strangled into "confessions," so I don't read a "government is always right" subtext into those tales as I would in a true facist tract.
Later on, like in the 50s, Superman did become more a defender of the status quo and a flag-waving embodiment of patriotism, and I suppose those on the left could argue that alone made him a "fascist." But by then he had also abandoned his old strong-arm bullying tactics, so he was hardly a storm-trooper. If anything, buying into the "Establishment" mindset seemed to make Supes a much more even-tempered, calmed down sort of guy. Not traits I'd attribute to a fascist.
Wertham saw what he wanted to see. He formed a conclusion and then sought out the "facts" that would back him up, which is the exact opposite of what an ethical scientist is supposed to do. Whether you care about comics or not, its pretty obvious Wertham was a hack.