Anaphase: I Wanted To Cry But I Didn’t
September 3, 2023
By NZB3
Little Critter children’s books are a fixture of Generation X youth¹ written and illustrated by Mercer Mayer from 1975 to 2015. Like the earlier Richard Scarry books, Mayer’s are self-illustrated anthropomorphic animals with easy to read text for beginners. Both men produced through Little Golden Books (est.1942) which were a prolific series in the West and in New Zealand known by their signature golden book spines. Of course, Mayer’s books transmitted the basic principles the the post-war world had settled upon.
Every 80 or so years (time period called a saeculum) the values, goals, perspectives, and other memetic material is placed under review by our society. Our way of life is up for grabs again. The so-called ‘social contract’ is re-negotiated and all the old ideas we relied upon for our social working machinery are reviewed, re-learned, abandoned, or renewed. These ideas have been well established in microbiology where this stage is termed ‘anaphase’. In developmental psychology, such as the famous framework of Eric Ericson, it is called Identity vs. Role Confusion and dates the organism at an adolescent stage of life. In history, the Strauss-Howe framework calls this stage the Unraveling or Third Turning.
It’s time I opened a file on the Unravelling/Anaphase our culture is presently going through. Everything seems to be up for grabs these days; We forget what we thought we knew and are re-learning. We have been asking each other “what is a woman.” We have been asking if we should wash a chicken before cooking it or not? We have been re-investigating the Egyptian pyramids and entertaining radical new interpretations. In Anaphase some of our boys are identifying as girls and some of our girls are identifying as cats! Most recently people have even been re-evaluating how mirrors work and ask “how does the mirror know?” The premises of films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are so unravelled that the 2023 film’s protagonist isn’t white and the Seven are not even dwarfs! Many films have been Blackwashed or Racebended in this current era. Authors such as Richard Scarry, Enid Blyton, and Roald Dahl have been unraveled, re-written, or simply had their work cancelled entirely. Hairy Maclary author Lynley Dodd was under attack because her childrens dog stories lacked “diversity.” The co-creator of sitcom Friends apologies for lack of diversity too. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling went from hero to zero for refusing to participate in The Great Unravelling.
The Anaphase has reached Mercer Mayer’s books too, of course. Today I found it in the form of re-editing a page (see image, left) from his 1994 book Just Lost! Conservatives would rather leave this part of the heroic hampster-kid journey intact: “I wanted to cry, but I didn’t. I was brave instead.” But the Woke and Social Justice types are redacting this particular cultural meme and substituting in their own text. We are literally Unravelling the old Conformity and re-combining it into a new order for the new Saeculum. Which view will prevail is playing out before our eyes; It’s a Culture War.
“I wanted to cry, so I did! I was brave and sad” says the new version. The Old Conformity considers this an act of vandalism and plagiarism. For example, “Amanda Palmer’s edits are dumb, and the original version is correct. Learning how to get along in the world without having an emotional breakdown everyday is a critical part of growing up, and a lesson that a lot of people in their teens and 20s now seem not to have learned.” writes Sean Malone.
Meanwhile, on the SJW side, “Imagine how different our world could be if this was the dominant message to all children. Thank you for this” says one woman. “I still love Mercer Mayer books, but yeah..” and “Some books do not stand the test of time. They need a tweak (as you show). Thankfully, there are so many children books written today that are inclusive, diverse, and..” say some other women. “Such a great revision!!!!” and “Exactly. Thank you!!!!” say some other Persons Capable of Expressing Breast Milk.
Who is right?
Who is right? In other words, when this Mitosis of our society concludes what version of this do we take with us rather than jettison?
First, let’s start with the context. Little Critter is having a Hero’s Journey in Just Lost where he is faced with a Developmental challenge. A dependent cut off in public from his attachment figures he can down-regulate and cry as a victim. Or, he can follow the music of that Self-Actualising Tendency all organisms have. In Erickson’s Eight Stages of Man he calls this part Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. In Strauss-Howe it corresponds to ‘coming-of-age’ Second Turning. Little Critter’s first challenge is emotional. He must decide if he should take autonomous action over his predicament and he must decide how. If he does, it will be saying goodbye forever to being a dependent because there can be no going back after this.
The Toxic Feminine appears to wish Little Critter would cry and be sad. The Toxic Masculine appear to want Little Critter to suppress and repress his emotional problem and get back to kinetic action. Both sides see what’s wrong in the other, talk and cross-purposes, and attack each other.
Little Critter has 2 problems and the first is emotional. As the book shows, he doesn’t melt down in shame and doubt waiting to be passively saved. In Ericsonian terms he synthesises the virtue of Will Power and, as the picture shows, he does shed a tear. He doesn’t repress his inner child but self-soothes. He stays In Self with his Aware Ego calling the shots as based on having access to a healthy Attachment Figure for a model. Rather than reject that part of him that usually deals with situations like this by crying for help he steps into the vacant position usually filled by a soothing parent and supplies his own Will. This is growing up.
Mothers tend to be the breaks, trying to stop the growing up process. Fathers tend to be the accelerator pedals trying to rush the growing up process.
Mercer Mayer expressed this entire Second Turning/Will Power milestone with just one page. An empathetic mouse represents the Aware Ego as this plays out and on the following page Little Critter is off to solve his problem of being Lost by recruiting assistance. Jean Piaget or Jordan Peterson could fill a library or a lecture series trying to express Mayer’s succinct one-page statement.
Anarchist Libertarianism absolutely depends on the original version of this sacred text. But, not the misinterpretation that Little Critter sucked it up and repressed his developmental journey so he could attend to a practical problem. This way leads to the Statist view that people’s passions need to be ruled and controlled; Mistrusted rather than Trusted. It’s controlling and self-rejecting. But we also need people who are self-integrated and whose Locus of Control is internal rather than External. Those who insist we must stay forever a dependent infant require a Big Brother to rule; This is how we get Statism.
This is a page of our cultural DNA we cannot afford to rip out! It is, however, essential to the living process of the Social Organism that we Unravel this and all things rather than take them to granted. Only then can we self-audit and become the next and better version of humanity that survives the Fourth Turning/Crisis that comes after this Unraveling presently well underway.
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1 And, Millennials
2 aka Millennial Saeculum
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