The Sweet Secret to Influencing Children's Behavior
Discover more from Conflicted with Greg Berry
The Sweet Secret to Influencing Children's Behavior
The Wokeberries taste like Wokeberries.
Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides. -André Malraux
And Willy Wonka locked his candy recipe’s down like Epstein’s flight logs.
But while the fictional chocolatier's paranoia blended well with his eccentric personality, his caution wasn’t baseless.
In mid-twentieth century England, private candy companies like Cadbury and Rountree routinely sent spies into each other’s facilities as employees to steal best practices, technologies, and the latest candied concoctions.
Big Chocolate executives even went as far as to follow employees after hours, searching for suspicious rendezvous’.
For more about the rivalry that inspired Roald Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, read Chocolate Wars by Sheila Cadbury.
But the well-known story, as with other Dahl works, taught lessons to young readers, such as the dangers of common vices.
Granted, Violet Beauregard's gum addiction is hardly considered an extreme indecency by modern standards.
Yet Augustus Gloops’ gluttony and Veruca Salt’s ungratefulness continue to erode polite society.
Still, no addiction evolved more than Mike TV’s obsession with the silver screen.
Pork, Western, and Lebanesian Recipe Ideas
Johnny Depp took the lead role as the peculiar plant owner in 2005, and there’s even a teaser for a 2023 prequel simply titled Wonka.
An act not to be outdone by Gene Wilder’s 1971 performance.
But the Royal Air Force veteran first wrote the story in 1964, when television was relatively new and rapidly evolving.
Like many kids of the time, Mike TV dreamed of being a cowboy, even though he could never become one.
At least not the type portrayed on screen.
As television expanded, writers and producers focused on less fantastical ideas, as police dramas gained popularity, such as Dragnet, CHiPs, and, eventually, COPS, the first reality show.
That’s when kids found inspiration in more realistic pursuits.
But children found more than career influence on TV. They also saw how TV characters mimicked everyday life and, eventually, social concerns.
For example, as crazy as it sounds, the Leave It To Beaver creators clashed with the CBS Standards and Practices department over whether they could show a toilet during an episode in 1957.
A toilet.
How times have changed.
Since then, television producers have tackled everything from the first kiss, the first death, the first interracial kiss, and everything else.
Programs like Family Matters sought to address race relations, and Ellen Degeneres just wanted to be accepted for being “Lebanese,” as she joked on the Rosie O’Donnell Show in the mid-1990s.
But that was all a fight for equality, and those days are gone.
Today, minorities only serve as content for views.
Stick to The Recipe
Even “reality” shows follow a format to build engagement.
Just go back and watch COPS season one, episode one. It’s a blast from the past.
They showed the action, of course, but we saw much more about “the men and women of law enforcement,” as I can still hear the narrator saying.
We joined officers in their homes while an off-duty cop argued with his wife about not wanting to discuss the day’s work.
We tagged along to after-work outings to let loose after a stressful shift.
And we witnessed the unfortunate reality of police work as the Broward County Sherriff invited cameras to a funeral.
Additionally, the consequences of the failed war on drugs were clear to viewers when an officer broke down in tears after surrendering a toddler to state custody following his mother’s arrest.
They didn’t even have a blanket for him.
Maybe that’s why COPS never aired in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York. They didn’t want people to see the realities of Democratic strongholds and hurt those sweet tourism dollars.
Now, COPS sticks to a script, a quick cookie-cutter intro, followed by a criminal observation or call, confrontation, chase, arrest, then commercial.
Just add three parts into a bowl and mix, and you've got yourself an episode-just make sure to keep viewers glued to their TVs.
It’s documented that during season 26, officers continuously tested an unknown substance (with a field test that was not admissible in court due to its low accuracy) until it gave a positive result.
A lab later determined the specimen was not drugs.
It’s all about ratings and content.
After all, who wants to watch a cop clock people on the side of the highway for 30 minutes or respond to half-sleeping homeowners accidentally setting off their burglar alarms?
Actually, I’d watch that. I do watch that. See Live On Patrol if you’re interested.
But generally speaking, it’s not just about sex and violence. Viewers also take comfort in knowing what to expect.
Dupe The Ingredients For Maximum Yield
That’s also why we have so many remakes.
Why risk losing money with an original idea?
Why not play it safe and remake an old movie? It worked before.
Willy Wonka, Leave It to Beaver, Dragnet, and CHiPs have all been remade or adapted as movies.
Just like endless repeats of Star Wars, Captain America, Transformers, and everything else.
Maybe that’s why Disney is laying off 7,000 people. That and leaked agendas like this:
Just let a computer write the next woke installment of Frozen. It’s all the same recipe.
Given rapid advances in artificial intelligence and deep fake technology, we may not even need human actors in ten years.
Life used to influence art, but now life is killing art.
The Brats Are In Control
Mike TV wanted to be a cowboy because that’s what he saw on screen: action, adventure, and an escape from childhood boredom.
Yet the character would likely outgrow the phase.
Assuming Wonka wasn’t lying when Charlie asked about the other kids:
My dear boy, I promise you they'll be quite all right. When they leave here, they'll be completely restored to their normal, terrible old selves. But maybe they'll be a little bit wiser for the wear. Anyway, don't worry about them.
Kids still mimic what they see on screen, but it’s not cowboys or cops anymore.
Now it’s all about being a victim and joining a protected class.
Producers used to worry about showing a toilet during a sitcom.
Now, trans people show off their naked, post-op bodies to children in the Netherlands on TV.
To large corporations, minorities are just mascots for content and sales. And manipulating reality for engagement is misleading kids and adults, whether it’s COPS falsifying field tests or Disney pushing gay agendas.
Dylan Mulvaney is today’s Spuds Mackenzie.
Those born in the United States, or Western societies in general, won the “Golden Ticket.”
We enjoy modern comforts and opportunities that few experience. Yet we’re letting our impulses and ungratefulness ruin the tour for everyone.
And we are proving we don’t have the integrity, discipline, or leadership to run the factory.
The Sweet Secret to Influencing Children's Behavior
Wow, this is really eye-opening to all the craziness out there regarding kids. I’m glad you attached the link to watch the clip on that transgender thing otherwise I probably wouldn’t have believed it!