It crosses my mind that the opening sequence (which I merely stumbled across while channel-flipping) of at least one season of the now fifteen-year-old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series is a good example of how backwards and irrational our culture’s instincts are, from my perspective.
Realizing that the Earth is imperiled, a giant head/mentor figure in the sequence bellows, as if it’s the most logical thing in the world, “Recruit a team of teenagers — with attitude!” I though it was bad enough when NASA decided to recruit a team of rogues and misfits Dirty Dozen-style to save the Earth in Meteor. I certainly don’t want the Earth’s fate decided (unless absolutely necessary) by a team of teenagers with attitude.
Maybe if I wanted to form a cult, band of jihadists, Nazi Youth League, collective of Sparticists, political campaign envelope-stuffers, garage rock ensemble, or group of naive Greenpeace activists (like the ones often near ACSH HQ where I work, ironically — today I heard one of them say “There’s our friend, Jesus” as she noticed a guy ranting about the Bible just a few yards away, saying something about “…earthquakes in various locations…” as I walked by — maybe he should assemble a team of teenagers with attitude WHILE THERE’S STILL TIME).
Then again: maybe that giant head knew exactly what he was doing. Makes you see the exploited Power Rangers in a whole new light.
1 comment:
I had this concept (perhaps in parody) I wanted to write in which the giant head character was in fact using the naive Power Rangers for his own nefarious purposes. Thanks for pointing out that which I determined in the series’ infancy.
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