I was reading the back story on Fritz Lang’s M, and found this curious: “Lang considered M to be his favorite of his own films because of the social criticism in the film. In 1937, he told a reporter that he made the film “to warn mothers about neglecting children”.”
Further: M has been said, by various critics and reviewers,[17] to be based on serial killer Peter Kürten—the “Vampire of Düsseldorf“—whose crimes took place in the 1920s.[18] Lang denied that he drew from this case in an interview in 1963 with film historian Gero Gandert; “At the time I decided to use the subject matter of M there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany—Haarmann, Grossmann, Kürten, Denke, […]”
As should be obvious, I cast my perceptual net far and wide. Within my lifetime, we have evolved from a nation of “free range” children–which is to say largely care free parents and care free children–to one in which parents risk having their children taken from them if they let them walk a few blocks to the park before a certain age.
How important to emotional development is freedom in early childhood? One can scarcely wonder if, on one pole of this equation, Muslim women find it very hard to develop emotionally and particularly to build a sense of self which alone would make them capable of raising emotionally intelligent children; and on the other hand, it seems the tribal lives of say, American Indians in the pre-imperial period, might be optimally conducive to growth.
If you are faced with large fear from an early age, what effect does this have? Does not fear bring with it an increased need for security, and is that not precisely what government promises?
It is an extraordinarily tenuous hypothesis, but I wonder if the spate of very prolific, very public serial killers in the 1920’s in Germany helped the Nazi rise to power. Conversely, I suppose one could wonder if the prevalence of such crimes indicated a national illness which eventually manifested in the Nazis.
I’m just spouting here. It’s what I do. This whole post may be utter nonsense, but I have often found nonsense leads to better ideas which actually have value. Exploration is always potentially useful.
Further: M has been said, by various critics and reviewers,[17] to be based on serial killer Peter Kürten—the “Vampire of Düsseldorf“—whose crimes took place in the 1920s.[18] Lang denied that he drew from this case in an interview in 1963 with film historian Gero Gandert; “At the time I decided to use the subject matter of M there were many serial killers terrorizing Germany—Haarmann, Grossmann, Kürten, Denke, […]”
As should be obvious, I cast my perceptual net far and wide. Within my lifetime, we have evolved from a nation of “free range” children–which is to say largely care free parents and care free children–to one in which parents risk having their children taken from them if they let them walk a few blocks to the park before a certain age.
How important to emotional development is freedom in early childhood? One can scarcely wonder if, on one pole of this equation, Muslim women find it very hard to develop emotionally and particularly to build a sense of self which alone would make them capable of raising emotionally intelligent children; and on the other hand, it seems the tribal lives of say, American Indians in the pre-imperial period, might be optimally conducive to growth.
If you are faced with large fear from an early age, what effect does this have? Does not fear bring with it an increased need for security, and is that not precisely what government promises?
It is an extraordinarily tenuous hypothesis, but I wonder if the spate of very prolific, very public serial killers in the 1920’s in Germany helped the Nazi rise to power. Conversely, I suppose one could wonder if the prevalence of such crimes indicated a national illness which eventually manifested in the Nazis.
I’m just spouting here. It’s what I do. This whole post may be utter nonsense, but I have often found nonsense leads to better ideas which actually have value. Exploration is always potentially useful.