I wouldn’t blame you at all for being wondering how I could possibly say Cap is hurting our children but some people think not vaccinating their children is protecting them so anything is possible.
My son and I continued our tradition of seeing superhero movies together and thoroughly enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
It was midway through the opening trailers that I started wondering about what affect the movies are having on our children but probably not for the reason some of you are thinking about.
I wasn’t concerned about whether our children will have trouble distinguishing between fact and fiction. If they are the right age to see the show it shouldn’t be an issue.
What I wondered about was what kind of impact the movies have on imagination. When I was a kid technology wasn’t capable of translating the vision of the comic book writers onto the screen.
Superpowers and amazing deeds in 3D were the sole province of our minds and imaginations.
But does any of that matter? Are the changes stimulating imaginations?
3 Shocking Examples Of How I Beat Captain America In A Fight
Those of you who know me well won’t be shocked nor surprised to read that headline and that is ok. You wouldn’t be surprised to hear me say I have a plan for how to defeat gorillas, alligators, rhinos and Vladimir Putin in single combat too.
And you really won’t be surprised to learn that boys who want to date my daughter will not be able to do so until after I finish my conversation with Godot.
Did I mention I am still waiting.
Imagination Is The Engine That Takes Us Anywhere
Some of the reverential talk about Steve Jobs has always made me roll my eyes a bit. Add his quirks and you might understand better why I used to refer to him as Voldemort but I haven’t ever doubted that he changed the world.
But I have also wondered what would happen if you and I had access to the same resources as he did. Would we limit our vision to what we see or would we push the boundaries?
Would we have enough of an ego to believe we know what people need and what they want. Would we be willing to try to give it to them?
What role would timing play in all of this?
If you see me staring off into space there is a good chance I am thinking about some of those questions or mulling over what is said in the quotes just below this.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”― Albert Einstein
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”― Albert Einstein
“Everything you can imagine is real.”― Pablo Picasso
Imagination And Captain America
I suppose the real fear about imagination and Captain America is that the movie will fill in the blanks for some people and they won’t be able to imagine anything more or different than what they have seen.
Part of me understands that. If you use a sports analogy you could relate it to seeing certain players leave the team they have always been with to go somewhere else.
I hate the Yankees but Derek Jeter will always be a Yankee, hard to imagine him anywhere else. But then again if Jeter wasn’t a Yankee would he be who he is today?
Michael Jordan didn’t start winning championships until Phil Jackson came along and installed a different system. Would he have found a way to help the Bulls win without the Triangle Offense?
Maybe.
Much of what happens in life is tied into the circumstances we find ourselves in. You might be the greatest copywriter ever but if you never get a chance to demonstrate it no one will ever know.
Could Joshua Wilner Really Beat Captain America In A Fight?
That last subhead is tied into SEO and the imagination. Could I really beat Captain America in a fight? Do I get to take the same super soldier serum that Cap got?
Do I get to train for the fight? Who is training me? What resources and tools do I have?
Who am I kidding, of course I could and can and that is because of imagination.
Imagination is the engine that takes us anywhere and if I have one major concern about school it is that I don’t want the system to beat imagination out of my children.
And in the professional world I don’t want business to be so fearful of change we stuff our imagination into a box and only rely upon things we have tried before.
What do you think?
Joshua Wilner/A Writer Writes Yup. While we are the system, other people are part of it too. And for every original thinker there’s a hundred or a thousand more people who just want to find someone they can follow.
StartYourNovel Hi John, you are right we are the system and we have more control and power to influence things than people realize.
I loved the movie and truthfully am not real worried for my children and their imagination but others, well I don’t know. I run into a lot of sheep these days.
Here’s the thing, Josh, The Winter Soldier won’t beat the imagination out of anybody who’s got a strong imagination — anyone who knows their inner core.
Anyone with the capacity to react and go beyond the imagination of others.
The “system” wants to create cogs and gears. The “system” wants efficiency and compliance. At least, that’s the common belief.
But WE are the system; it is not this inhuman abstraction that formats people. If we don’t want a banal future deprived of imagination it’s up to us not to raise banal children, mindless consumers who merely accept what’s laid out before them.
Here’s the thing, Josh, The Winter Soldier won’t beat the imagination out of anybody who’s got a strong imagination — anyone who knows their inner core.
Anyone with the capacity to react and go beyond the imagination of others.
The “system” wants to create cogs and gears. The “system” wants efficiency and compliance. At least, that’s the common belief.
But WE are the system; it is not this inhuman abstraction that formats people. If we don’t want a banal future deprived of imagination it’s up to us not to raise banal children, mindless consumers who merely accept what’s laid out before them.