Mass Culture as a Means of Moral Degradation and Formation of Children’s Deviant Spirituality in Refraction of Criticism by K.I. Chukovsky

Introduction. In the context of the modern global Western agenda, actively promoting ideas contrary to traditional values and culture, children’s consciousness is especially vulnerable. Over the years, and nowadays with special urgency, there has been a latent formation of deviant spirituality in children through publishing. To understand this disturbing trend, we deliberately turn to the experience of the outstanding literary critic K.I. Chukovsky, as his legacy sheds light on the origins of the growing destruction in the children’s publishing industry.

In the article preceding this work, “Criticism of Mass Culture by K.I. Chukovsky as an Anthropological Problem”, the subject of research was the text of K.I. Chukovsky “Nat Pinkerton and Modern Literature” (1908). In that text, the writer outlined the main trends in the spiritual and moral decline of man and society at the beginning of the 20^th century. The process indicated by the writer was designated by us as an anthropological problem, which is a consequence of the process of secularization, and the article by K.I. Chukovsky a lens, thanks to which it became possible to trace the logic of the writer’s subsequent criticism of the comics industry as the leading direction of mass literature.

From that moment until the writing of K.I. Chukovsky of other critical articles 40 years have passed. During this period, revolutions and two World Wars have already taken place, and, of course, the phenomenon of Nazism and Fascism was already well known throughout the world. In these works, the critic sees parallels between German Fascism and the process of fascization of American children. I.e. K.I. Chukovsky will see not just the anti-pedagogical orientation of the American publishing industry, but its such destructive methods, which in a sense even exceeded the policy of the Hitler Youth. The writer will also unequivocally declare that F. Nietzsche was the ideological inspirer of German Fascism, and that American Superman is also his brainchild, as a result of the embodiment of the idea of a superman.

The purpose of the work is an attempt to highlight some historical aspects of the formation of children’s deviant spirituality through publishing until the 50s, the 20th century, on the example of American comics magazines in the refraction of criticism of K.I. Chukovsky.

Materials and Methods. The basis of this study is the following methods: historical and literary, axiological, formal logic. This methodology gives us the opportunity to turn to the literary and critical works of K.I. Chukovsky as a mirror reflecting the causes and hidden mechanisms of the emergence of destructive sociocultural trends in the development and upbringing of children, to identify the general and special in the phenomena under study as well as to give them a spiritual and moral assessment. The main material base was the following works of K.I. Chukovsky: “Multi” (1940), “Corruption of children’s souls” (1948), “Corruption of American children” (1949), “Education of gangsters” (1949), works of domestic and foreign researchers of the phenomenon of mass culture.

Results. “The morality of mass culture is the decomposition of the morality that in the past could be found in children’s books”, the famous philosopher M. Horkheimer will write about the spiritual side of mass culture [1]. If in the age of ignorance of books there are films that actively shape the worldview of children and youth (we are talking about our time) then until the middle of the 20th century everything was a little different. Children’s consciousness was formed by the literature that children read and/or their parents read to children. K.I. Chukovsky always focused on the need to read classical literature for spiritual and moral education and development of children. This will be discussed in more detail below.

One of the new phenomena of mass literature of the 20th century is the genre of “comic book”. A comic book is a special combination of literature and fine art. The comic as a special direction has its origins in the United States, although of course some make reference to significantly earlier origins, even to cave paintings of the prehistoric era as forerunners of comics. Experts distinguish several periods of the comics industry formation: the Platinum Age (1897‒1937), the Golden Age (1938-1955), the Silver Age (1956‒1972), the Bronze Age (1973‒1985), the Modern Age or the Dark (1985 — present). The Russian researcher D.G. Dmitrieva in her work “The phenomenon of the American superhero in the context of the visual culture of the 20^th century” identifies six periods [2]. These are conditional boundaries and they vary by context.

Thus, funny, drawn stories in pictures, comics, are primarily a phenomenon and an organic part of “mass culture”. The purpose of comics is entertainment (from the English comic “funny”). Although initially comics served a therapeutic function as helping American immigrants gain a new community; comics also reflected social reality [2, p. 103]. Until the late thirties, various really funny stories in comics were common in the United States. Since the thirties, the comic book genre began to change, it will be replaced by more serious directions. We are talking about action movies, detectives, horror, fiction.

In general, this trend can be described as “degradation of the artistic narrative”, as the famous Italian scientist U. Eco will say in relation to the folk novel (feuilleton) in the section of his book “Superman for the Masses” of the same name [3]. From the point of view of axiology, the process of degradation of the narrative can lead to a dangerous situation, “when it is no longer possible to easily justify the pleasure that it brings” [3, p. 26]. Thus, for example, one of the pieces of evidence of the worsening degradation of feuilleton, and the same can be said about comics, is the denial of social order as a social norm, it is only a “dull, far-fetched background” [3, p. 27]. In the end, as U. Eco notes, “the more the degradation is aggravated, the more attractive the artistic narrative seems to us” [3, p. 28].

We emphasize that what the Italian philosopher said about the degradation of artistic narrative is especially applicable to comics.

In 1938, the situation with comics changed even more dramatically. With the advent of Superman, a superhero, an icon of American culture (DC Comics — Detective Comics), comics acquire not only a propaganda orientation. Comics undergo such development over time that a number of others are added to the entertainment function: “education (for example, EC publishing house — education comics); advertisement; constitution and affirmation of social values, propaganda of the existing ideology” [2, p. 103]. The researcher, D.G. Dmitrieva, gives colorful examples of how the US propaganda machine used comics to shape the current agenda (processing mass consciousness of Americans). This tendency was clearly described by K.I. Chukovsky in his critical article “A Complete Pocket of Vulgarity” (1948).

The researcher D.G. Dmitrieva identifies three large ideological blocks: 1) overcoming the consequences of the Great Depression; 2) participation in World War II (the formation of the image of the enemy, in particular, Fascism and Soviet Communism, and the United States, at the same time, is the savior superpower of mankind); 3) Imperialism (USA — an empire that has rights to colonial lands [2, p. 126].

The appearance of the figure of Superman is not accidental. In the midst of secularity, when man increasingly forgot their Creator, when their soul and heart languished for relief, God’s surrogate, Superman, was invented. He was intended to become a kind of lifeline for Americans at the time of sorrow, and subsequently a man who will solve all the problems of mankind.

The appearance of Superman is followed by the appearance of Batman, Captain America, Plastic Man, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Shazam, Black Adam, Atom, Catwoman and many other characters who grew up in arithmetic progression and filled everyday being of Americans of all ages with their presence. They have been filling people’s life to this day, but now far beyond the borders of the United States. In total, there are about 400 superheroes and 20 thousand characters in the DC Universe.

Corruption of American Children. Surprisingly, there is our compatriot, the outstanding philologist K.I. Chukovsky at the origins of criticism of American comics. He wrote several articles devoted to the pedagogical and moral analysis of the content of the comics indicated by us in the research methods.

K.I. Chukovsky, a child psychologist, clearly understood how the comics benefit their readers, and understood what goal the state and its corporations pursued. For example, the comic magazine Superman, which has a multimillion-dollar circulation, which was read by all American children, starting from the age of eight, was constantly filled with creepy and immoral content. After acquaintance with this magazine, the writer admitted: ... “it seemed to me that I was in a gangster brothel, among notorious thieves and murderers” [4].

Many inveterate criminals surround the child in American magazines and there are many such magazines: “All mass children’s magazines and books are filled with bandits from top to bottom. The trust that publishes “Superman” publishes thirty more magazines with the same pronounced criminal bias” [4]. K.I. Chukovsky is horrified: “All these are heroes of stories for children!”.

Comics constantly broadcast material to children about various types of crimes that “have become a thousand times more intricate, spectacular and pretentious” [4]. They also show “the most virtuoso methods of theft, robbery and fraud” [4]. The entire magazine corporation strives to “make children connoisseurs, gourmets, lovers of murders and scams and make them learn to appreciate crimes in terms of the skill of criminal techniques” [4].

K.I. Chukovsky also notes the characteristic influence of comics of that time on the threatening increase in child crime in America. He believes that “one of the ideological factors contributing to its growth is undoubtedly these stories about the Superman exploits” [4].

In his article, the writer cites examples of studies of compassionate Americans who are not indifferent to the fate of their country’s children. For example, one of the psychiatrists also testifies to “the strongest increase in child crime under the direct influence of these countless “comics” [4].

Another American analyst, arguing about the impact of comics on children, bitterly states: “It is useless to persuade children to refuse to read “comics”, it is just as useless to try to awaken in publishers and writers of “comics” at least some glimmers of conscience” [4]. The same analyst summarizes: “If we admit that the writers of mass books reflect the era in these books, we, perhaps, will not deviate too much from the truth if we conclude that we are degenerating and gradually becoming a nation of unbridled superhumans, worthless and sadistically evil” [4].

K.I. Chukovsky will discuss the meaning of the concept of “superhuman”, draw a parallel with Superman and clarify that it “comes from Nietzsche, the ideological inspirer of the German fascists” [4]. By the way, U. Eco believes that the image of “superhuman” (Superman) originated not in philosophy, but in literature, and its ideological father was the French writer Eugène Sue: “Superman is born in feuilleton forges and only then penetrates philosophy” [3, p. 75]. The prototype of Superman is the “satanic romantic hero” [3, p. 75].

Let’s come back to K.I. Chukovsky. The writer will give a review “about this Americanized Nietzschean hero” of one of the New York scientists in the Journal of Psychotherapy:... “Parents and teachers do not see that Lynch’s law is essentially based on the formula of a superhuman... “Comics” succeeded in one thing: they gave every child in America such a full course of paranoid megalomania that had never been presented to children even in Nazi Germany, they inspired them with such confidence in the moral justification of physical force that none of the German fascists dared to dream of” [4].

As a result, the literary critic will express the idea that the United States was engaged in the mass fascization of children, since “children are tomorrow’s army”. In order to get a heartless and merciless combat unit, children were taught that «man is a rascal to man”, and “banditism is the norm” [4]. We are talking, of course, about the moral degradation of children, about the blurring or leveling the distinctions in the children’s consciousness of the concepts of good/evil, light/darkness, norm/deviation.

K.I. Chukovsky, following the writer E. Triolet, also points out one of the recipes that can counter comics as “American fascist poison” [4]. This recipe is the struggle for an ideological highly artistic children’s book.

Corruption of Children’s Souls. Another article by K.I. Chukovsky, “Corruption of Children’s Souls”, largely echoes the articles “Corruption of American Children” and “Education of Gangsters”. There is only one agenda: man became a god, Superhuman (“Superman”) and began to do wonders. American superhumans are also known in Russia under the names of Clark Kent (Superman) and Bruce Wayne (aka “Batman”). Both characters are endowed with “the qualities of an almighty God”. These neo-mythological gods are constantly fighting the endless “attractive banditism”.

The writer laments that “these bloody books” (comics) in America are sold everywhere and at the lowest price. There are extremely many of them. K.I. Chukovsky indicates the number of 250. All these children’s magazines are designed for a multi-million audience.

What is the essence of these magazines? The literary critic will write the following: “In these magazines they only cut, shoot, strangle, poison, maim and drown people, throw them off trains, airplanes, or drag them to prison, to an electric chair... In all these multimillion-dollar publications, the moral basis is the same: man is a beast to man. Their only content is people hunting for people. Adults diligently involve children in such predatory animal excitement as self-forgetting of catching and bullying, the rapture of chasing and hunting” [5]. Further, the writer will continue his thought, specifying that “mass corruption of children is carried out forcibly instilling animal instincts in them; but in recent years the epidemic has become spontaneous, the intensity of its destructive poisons has increased a thousand times” [5].

K.I. Chukovsky states that in his time it is no longer possible to imagine a child without a comic book, and that it is more than difficult to protect children in America “from this tremendous evil”, since publishing companies have huge profits from this business.

Let’s also point out a couple of reasons that upset our critic. The first one is the ignorance of classical literature by American children, instead of which comics are absorbed: “Teachers complain that talented, artistically valuable books which are being published in America nowadays are swept over like islands in the ocean with these bloody «comics»” [5]. The second reason is that in America you can buy everything for dollars: ... “for dollars you can even buy conscience here”. Chukovsky refers to the editorial board, «blessing» the issue of comics, whose members are professors of pedagogy and psychiatry: “In the person of these psychiatrists, professors of pedagogy, specialists in children’s reading, the modern science of America not only authorizes, but also directs mass corruption of children, carried out from day to day by a continuous stream of detective-gangster publications” [5].

Education of Gangsters. In 1949, K.I. Chukovsky will write an article entitled “Education of gangsters (Notes on American literature for children)” [6]. This article consists of five sections, but they can be divided into two blocks. The first block (1‒3) is devoted to criticism of the work of the outstanding American animator Walt Disney. The second (4‒5) is a summary of the above-mentioned articles “Corruption of American Children”, “Corruption of Children’s Souls”, “Full Pocket of Vulgarity” and is devoted to criticism of Nat Pinkerton, and superheroes: Superman, Batman, etc.

The subject of criticism of the work of W. Disney is the comic book magazine “Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories”, having been published by this company since 1940. Meanwhile, in 1940 a critical article by K.I. Chukovsky was published, it was entitled “Multi”, and dedicated to Disney animation, which, according to the writer himself, had been followed by domestic children’s animation for several years. Even then, K.I. Chukovsky will say that the brilliant W. Disney confused the Soviet animation with his “vulgar and anti-poetic style” and sent it to the wrong path. It is noteworthy that «“Mickey the Conductor» was its inspiration, its ideal” [7]. I. Stalin, who initiated the creation of “our Mickey” in the USSR, had special sympathy for Disney’s work in the early 30s.

From the fortieth year, “overcoming Disney” begins and Soviet cinema went its own way, abandoning “unnecessary caricature, stunts, callous and soulless American booth”, taking “a course towards sincerity and poetry, quiet and gentle lyricism” [7]. The biographer of K.I. Chukovsky I.V. Lukyanova wrote about this in the section of her book of the same name [8].

Let’s come back to comics. Disney monthly magazine contains fifty-two pages, of which, according to the writer, only two are not fully occupied by any text. The rest account for drawings, there are about four hundred of them. Each magazine plot is presented by a cinematic method, i. e. a continuous chain of paintings; there is maximum minimum of text. The intelligibility of Disney fairy tales is enormous, since “this method is quite adapted to the psyche of small children”, the literary critic writes.

K.I. Chukovsky states that “all kinds of tricks and scams” are the main storyline of these tales. The basis and peculiar morality of fairy tales are deception, cunning, cynicism, mercantilism, pragmatism, utilitarianism, in short, immorality. The writer gives specific examples and is amazed that this is generally printed, and even for children: “The bacchanalia of mutual deception and what a rich variety of methods of appropriating someone else’s good!” [6].

We have already said that K.I. Chukovsky revered American and English classical literature. At this time in his article, the writer mentions those authors on whose examples American children were previously brought up. At first glance, it may seem that the examples given are indicated in a somewhat ironic and may be even cynical form, when K.I. Chukovsky pronounces the words in relation to foreign literature: Quaker, Puritan, holy, sanctimonious, bourgeoisvirtuous. However, if we take a substantive look at the content of the words of K.I. Chukovsky, we will see what he actually says about the fundamental moral component that helped raise children in the correct pedagogical paradigm.

Let us cite this passage: “Fifteen years ago, the Quaker, Puritan, holy spirit still safely dominated the US children’s literature. If you want to imagine the moral atmosphere of children’s American literature of recent times, remember such typical children’s books of America as «Little Women» and «Little Men» by Louise Alcott, «Silver Skates» by Mary Dodge, «Little Lord Fauntleroy» by Frances Burnett, etc., etc., etc.” [6].

K.I. Chukovsky emphasizes that a great number of such “sanctimonious, bourgeois-virtuous books were published every year” both in the USA and in England. What did the authors, indicated by Chukovsky, write their stories about, what can they teach children?

The answer is extremely simple. These stories teach children to be kind, honest, sincere, merciful, live with love in their heart, never despair, believe in the best, see the good in people, help those in need, pay attention to their neighbors and take care of them. They also teach mutual assistance, friendship, generosity, honesty, self-sacrifice, the priority of the spiritual over the material, a faithful view of traditional family values.

These texts, and in general the work of these writers, contain deep moral teachings, they are presented unobtrusively, and are conveyed to the reader simply and clearly. We can safely say that it is the family, in its traditional sense, that is the psychological and pedagogical core of the above-mentioned instructive stories, and love is the main virtue and driving force in a person’s life that transforms everything around. We can safely clarify that these works were built exclusively on the Christian worldview. K.I. Chukovsky, the future editor-in-chief of the collection of stories for children “The Tower of Babel”, understood that.

That is why the critic allowed himself to call this classic literature a “fig leaf”, because it covered the “predatory desires and morals” of many generations that could not do without this fig leaf. This expression is usually used to hypocritically cover up something shameful, obscene. It also symbolizes the hypocritical disguise of true intentions or the true state of affairs.

It is not difficult to understand the writer, since he was well aware that the classic was replaced by a detective story in the person of Nat Pinkerton, and after him a comic strip, as phenomena of mass culture. Mass culture itself is essentially focused exclusively on the entertainment needs of the “external” person. Therefore, further K.I. Chukovsky concerns a serious problem, urgent to this day, how Disney comics instill in children a love of money, more specifically, dollars, as a new idol of many people: “Children with a blissful smile lie on countless dollars, with which the whole floor is covered, and sort them out with their fingers, and weave some garlands from them, and decorate themselves with them like flowers, and bury their heads in them, and, as if being charmed, repeat in ecstasy: We want, we want to be bankers!” [6].

In another example, there is a bundle of dollars in the hands of a fraudster, which he fraudulently obtained, “in the drawing of Disney, the fraudster is surrounded by some special radiance, like a halo around the head of a miracle worker on ancient Byzantine icons!” [6]. Further, Chukovsky again and again focuses on the idolization of dollars and how the heroes of Disney comics go to all sorts of tricks in order to get the cherished pieces of paper. At the same time, the heroes of the stories lose everything human, “turning into cattle-like monsters” [6].

In many fairy tales of W. Disney, “ugly, cruel and meaningless relationships inherent in the environment where he lives and works” were expressed with extraordinary relief, this is how K.I. Chukovsky saw that. All “supposedly harmless children’s fairy tales with colorful drawings» are confirmation of the «inhuman» morality of the «current owners of America” [6]. According to the writer, dollar dominates in our corrupted world. K.I. Chukovsky is sure that animator W. Disney defiantly refuses any concern for the moral education of children and sarcastically mocks those who do otherwise.

The devil-may-care attitude of W. Disney to the issues of pedagogy and morality, as K.I. Chukovsky notes, allowed the first to begin to insert elements of sexualization of children into his work [9]: “A half-naked girl sunbathes on the beach. Her nudity irresistibly attracts Donald Duck. But the girl is hidden from him by a huge umbrella, only her legs are visible, and he strives in every possible way to bypass her umbrella and see the girl in all her beauty. These zealous efforts make up the plot of this series of drawings. This kind of pornography, which, until recently, was found in «comic» films for elderly erotomaniacs, is now spreading in a magazine intended for children and adolescents” [6].

Statements about the involvement of the younger generation in sexual issues were not built from scratch. Other researchers have also turned their attention to these aspects. It turns out that destructive topics have long been cultivated in the W. Disney children’s cinematography industry: discrediting and devaluing the institution of the family, absolutization of feminism, substitution of the concepts of good and evil (infernalization and demonization), sexualization, vulgarization of life, propaganda of homosexuality and transgender, hyperindividualism, technocratism, etc. This is done, of course, in a latent way. Behind the beautiful facade numerous traps for baby souls are hidden. Hence there is the formation of children’s deviant spirituality [10; 11].

In the absence of the opportunity to dwell in detail on critical points, let’s say that the second block of this article is devoted to the same thing as mentioned above: American superheroes, the growth of child crime, the popularity of comics, «this poisonous vulgarity,» the loss of children’s appetite “for any simple human book” and the fact that they “have only” thrillers “in their hearts... books that destroy the nerves system chilling blood with some cleverly invented horror” [6].

K.I. Chukovsky finishes his article with the statement that “mass children’s literature in the United States is intended to educate bandits who are fascistically freed from such” prejudices “as conscience, compassion, shame, ready, on the very first order of their overlords, newly-minted applicants for world domination, to commit any man-destructive act” [6].

The last sentence of this article speaks quite openly and frankly about the essence of the US government, its predatory policy towards other countries, and masking its imperialist ambitions with the notorious liberal democracy: “In the painted pictures of serial publications, there is the animal appearance of modern American imperialism, hated by the working masses of all countries, who rightly see in it the source of all the lowest, criminal, evil that is currently happening on our planet” [6].

Discussion and Conclusion. Mass culture has enormous potential. Thanks to the scientific contribution of K.I. Chukovsky, the research world managed to see its risky component. It became apparent that the mercantile use of mass culture could corrupt morality, shape deviant spirituality, and promote and implant any idea, for example, the idea that “man is a rascal/beast to man”. As a result, extreme selfishness, hostility, malignity, and widespread deception are cultivated. A criminal lifestyle in society, violation of order are declared the norm.

American comics, as well as the work of W. Disney, in the refraction of the writer’s criticism, are weapons of mass destruction: they morally decompose children, impose various idols on them (for example, dollars, Supermen...), blur and neutralize in the children’s consciousness the concepts of good/evil, light/darkness, norm/deviation.

K.I. Chukovsky intuitively determined that the Walt Disney entertainment industry could not be a child’s friend. He was prophetically right again. Today, this company, without hesitation, promotes the ideas of the LGBT community (the movement is recognized as extremist and prohibited in the Russian Federation).

Parents, as a rule, irresponsibly approach an extremely serious issue, the issue of raising children, and become accomplices in the involvement of children in destructive networks of mass culture.