Goodenough Gismo

  • Gismo39
    This is the classic children's book, Goodenough Gismo, by Richmond I. Kelsey, published in 1948. Nearly unavailable in libraries and the collector's market, it is posted here with love as an "orphan work" so that it may be seen and appreciated -- and perhaps even republished, as it deserves to be. After you read this book, it won't surprise you to learn that Richmond Irwin Kelsey (1905-1987) was an accomplished artist, or that as Dick Kelsey, he was one of the great Disney art directors, breaking your heart with "Pinocchio," "Dumbo," and "Bambi."



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Comments

Walrus

Ironically, the post-WWII generation Ann and I belong to can generally (with exceptions) handle freedom because we were brought up so tight and square. Younger people who may have raised themselves as latchkey kids in a climate of more anarchic self-indulgence and family fragmentation are vulnerable to seeking the structure outside themselves that they have never experienced and don't have built in.

Now there's an idea that's worth playing with a little more.

PatHMV

As best I can tell, most available data suggests that the fastest growing religions/denominations in the world are the strictest, most fundamentalist ones, Islam and various Evangelical groups of Christians.

Young people want guidance. They say they want independence, but they also want somebody to set some limits. As Walrus suggests, they haven't gotten much of that from the often permissive upbringings, so they're looking for it elsewhere, and they're turning not to the middle-of-the-road, namby-pamby religions, but to the religions which aren't afraid to set real guidelines for how to live your life.

Human beings need balance in all things. Without balance, society starts swinging like a pendulum back and forth between extremes. If we bring back just a little more tradition in childrearing and religion, we would go a long way toward pulling people back from the extremes.

wj

On the other hand, there are a fair number of historical examples where puritanism wore out its welcome after a decade or two -- specifically with a lot of the same people who embraced it previously. And was followed by a liberalization far beyond what the puritan founders thought they were fighting. For those trying to endure the swing to rigidity, that may offer a reason to hold on.

Micah

If you haven't already, see Europe now before it gets overrun by the Islamic hordes. Really: sometime this century.

David
[T]here are many reasons for converting... a sense of outrage at Western policy in places like Iraq and Lebanon.

Converting out of a sense of political outrage? That doesn't sound like a good idea.

forestwalker

"The West only represented libertinism and forced you to drink and have meaningless sex, so you had to jump into a system that imposed all sorts of limits on you.... How can you decide you don't want to be free if you haven't yet learned what freedom is?"

Our culture isn't capable of teaching us what freedom is because it doesn't know itself. My generation is rejecting nihilism, not freedom. More and more are learning that freedom comes from Meaning. But God help those who are seduced into fundamentalism.

Walrus

Actually, Pat, I was quoting Amba, so I can't take any credit.

As a general rule, I would say moderation is a wiser course. If I had my life to live over, I would be stricter on some things, more lenient on others, but I think it is an essential part of child-raising that there be limits established and enforced. The existence of limits is almost more important than the nature of them. In other words, it's more important that you're saying no sometimes than what specifically you are saying no to. Almost.

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