March 26, 2008
the comic-book inquisition
If it makes sense to speak of a Cold War culture in the United States—and it’s a concept that would have to accommodate a pretty wide assortment of artifacts, from Partisan Review to the transistor radio—then one of its classic moments was the comic-book inquisition. The event took place on April 21, 1954, at the Foley Square U.S. Courthouse (now the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse), in New York City, where a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee charged with investigating the causes of juvenile delinquency took on an imminent danger within: the comic-book industry. The hearings were televised.An investigation conducted by senators has been compared to a court run by kangaroos, and the analogy is not unfair, except possibly to the kangaroos. The normal rules of evidence do not apply in congressional hearings: badgering is appreciated; the verdict has frequently been arrived at in advance.
more from The New Yorker here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 08:58 AM | Permalink
Comments
It's interesting how psychiatry finds itself entangled in the web of everything that really does not understand.
Without knowing what causes delinquency, or the majority of the so-called mental illnesses for that matter, how can we prevent or much less treat them effectively?
Of course it is so, unless we believe in Paroxetine for the treatment of that pervasive "illness": Shyness.
Posted by: Felix E. F. Larocca MD | Mar 26, 2008 10:59:47 AM
Post a comment