[Paleopsych] Dan Brown versus reality -- an example

[Werbos, Dr. Paul J.]

Good morning!

In that email just now, I made some broad statements about the accuracy
of some of Brown's inferences.

If I did something like that in an NSF review statement, some people would 
be very upset: where are the
particulars to prove the point?

Two mitigating circumstances: (1) this is not a proposal review, or 
representation of anyone's official
views, or anything so formal; (2) Brown says so MANY things it would take a 
book to address all of them --
and many of them lead off into complicated side-issues.

But... OK... one easy example.

If my memory is right (I don't claim it is so reliable in this case!)...

Brown even had Walt Disney in there with the promoters of goddess worship,
of an asymmetrical matriarchal view.

Disney really was pushing certain cultural images very, very hard. That 
much is clear.
But Mickey Mouse was not a matriach (even if some Japanese children will tell
you they think Mickey is actually a girl...). I wonder how many of the New 
England
Neopagans have thought enough about The Sorceror's Apprentice?

Disney really was part of an institution, not a loner. That institution has 
given us
movies like Pocohontas, Mulan and Atlantis, all of which conveyed very strongly
a proper and strong role for women and for the "yin" in human life. But 
they were
not pushing a position of feminist antithesis fighting male thesis. (If it 
were only
Mulan, I have to admit I would need to be careful here...) The central theme of
Pocohontas, for example, was one of synthesis and balance and harmony,
not at all matriarchy. And Atlantis - was probably the least popular of the 
movies,
but arguably the one which bucked the market the hardest to convey images 
closer to
the kind of institutional roots Brown was alluding to.

======

Just one random thread...

Back to packing...

Best,

    Paul