It's fair to say that unique to any other generation, millennials have an affinity for content designed for children, whether this is nostalgia for childhood cherished franchises or those contemporary. What's worse, such content isn't enjoyed solitarily, but socially in an age where adults can do so without fear of humiliation.
The key here is nostalgia, nostalgic lament for childhood with a resentment for adulthood in what we call “the real world”. In this, the trivial and the mundane are aligned with reality, and the inspired with a childish naivety. I believe that what people call the realities of adulthood are not entirely universal, but more so the circumstances of a climate lacking energy. The default position of humanity is not to slump. What people call childhood wonder is just the perception of a young mind, fresh and unclouded by normalisations of the mundane. When you are born, your only frame of reference is your own existence; all other constructs have yet to form, as such you naturally seek vibrancy in the excitement of new things, as any rational faustian being naturally would. This is why children’s television shows revolve around extravagance—action, conflict and colour. When we grow up, we come to understand these depictions in stark separation from the world around us; such interests are childish, that the real world at best renders you an insect amongst many others. If you’re lucky you can become a successful insect with money, still within the flavorless paradigm. I believe that in truth, “the real world” is exactly what it is in relation to a universe established in one of the shows you grew up watching as a kid, ground zero.
If you have a good eye then you should recognise a distinction between energy and lack-there-of; this is where the concentrated dry aspect of British children’s entertainment comes in. It’s no surprise that most of the kids shows British television stations host come from abroad, because they’re the only ones which don’t make you want to watch mould form as an alternative to a lack of substance. On one hand: rational displays of color and life in media predominantly from Japan, Canada and the US—on the other, spiritual rot. It tells you to your face that you can’t have a need for excitement and aesthetic goodness, reducing everything to its weakest and ugliest potential.
At some point in a person's childhood, old joys fail to suffice; flair becomes naturalised and predictable; you become aware of the hours which make up a day and how short one is; time's quantity becomes more of a concern over state of being. Before indoctrination by the customs of the real world, fresh human males are naturally drawn to conflict's energy; this is why anime is so popular with teenagers and people in their early 30s. Childhood wonder, a drive towards movement exists beyond its manifestations in children’s entertainment; it is something which can be utilised in real life, not just as some PG-13 Hollywood movie but as actions executed by people within the physical realm. The Millennial generation has failed to harness this energy itself, instead fixating on its imprints in watching children’s entertainment, old and new—the type of media which would have captivated them during early years. When the Millennial generation grew up, it was swiftly acquainted with the reality of society’s interests: far from what a fresh human being is defaultly attracted to. Hunger for life is extinguished by ignorance; and not continued for pursuits of adulthood; never organically utilising the childlike wonder they were born with which gravitated them towards such entertainment in the first place; as adults they look back with nostalgia at the past signifiers of this wonder; everything is about remembering the past.
These people feel that things were better when they were kids, but they lack the ability to know why, so try to replicate childhood wonder by rewatching old shows from their youth, like a snake wearing its shed skin for nostalgia instead of using a new one. They look back fondly at the good old days; unbeknownst to them, this isn't to reminisce being a kid—it's to remind them of having a proper will towards movement, one which leads upwards into the eternal.
Modern day kids shows are created by a melancholy generation, disillusioned by the mundane "realities" of adult life. What they project in children's entertainment features consistent themes reflecting the environment which this generation found itself being dropped into after growing up; cartoon Network becomes Cartoon Hangover as Millennial infantilism is continued into adulthood.
One of the best examples is literally called Regular Show, epitomizing a genre meant for both early teens, then adult connoisseurs who still watch cartoons. The gimmick is the implication that whereas cartoon characters would usually be doing extravagant things under a colourful backdrop, Regular Show features fantasy style characters inhabiting the soul snubbing discourse of everyday life—mocking the extravagant. Whereas in the 90s you would find escapism in fictional media, modern day kids shows are developed from within a post-modern embrace of the mundane as understood to be of a duality between itself and an exclusively cartoon characterisation of vibrancy. This duality is a false construct, as vibrancy in nature exists outside of the limitations of nostalgic escapism. Millennials need to sever this fixation on stale childhood signifiers and channel their energy into affecting reality—as would the characters they creepily spectate.
The correct alternative to the modern world is not to slump into a passive state, harking back to the signifiers of days gone by, but to understand that the childhood you thought was gone and could never be reclaimed is just a prior manifestation of a spirit which exists beyond adolescence—one which you have the potential to revive. To do so you must truly remember your childhood self—what they would do in your current position within the adult world: they wouldn’t look back at an old VHS, they would be grounded in reality and as such look upwards and across plains with an intention to pull chaos out of the ground, generating bolder forms of civilisation resembling closer what you watched on TV as a kid. With this mindset, they would be first met with the horrors of what civilisation has been tamed into: the logical pursuit from there is fix it, but that's another blog.
You got filtered by British tv bro
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