I was watching cartoons this morning. Other than the cartoons on Adult Swim, I have not watched kid's cartoons since I was a kid myself nearly 15 years ago. As a father, I imagine this will change soon, but for now, I will simply reminisce on my own childhood.

As a youngster, I rarely watched the news, but I did catch Die Hard and its subsequent sequels, so I knew that when Roadrunner foiled Wile. E. Coyote's nefarious plot to kill Roadrunner with explosives, effectively turning the explosives on their administrator, the result of a little fur ruffling was probably inaccurate.

I also deduced from my time watching Die Hard, that if Coyote's Acme Anvil were to actually fall and drill him into the ground after Roadrunner had once again slipped past his hirsute clutch, the result would be more like Hans Grüber falling from Nakatomi Tower, than an awkward skin mountain growing on his head.

I've also never watched Dora the Explorer, but if it is anything like Speedy Gonzalez, I'm terrified for race relations in our country. As if our relationship with Mexican immigrants wasn't fragile already, we've got stereotypical displays all over. Even comedians play on the stereotypes.

I do enjoy Phineas and Ferb. (Yes, I suppose I've seen a few cartoons since I was a kid. I've had younger cousins.) If kids are going to be inside, rattling their brains with television and video games that are more-often-than-not violent ones, they might as well watch something where the main characters are curious, creative and show a great amount of ingenuity. From what I gathered, these two brothers engage in lofty experiments and goals, which they usually achieve in the comfy, cozy 22-minute show. They've also got a pet platypus (?) that doubles as a secret agent, fighting some bad dude. He wins.

In a society where imagination and creativity are only rewarded in an entrepreneurial sense, the artistic, creative side has seemed to die. While kids used to be encouraged to go outside and do some exploring, learn their neighborhood, create enough mischief to learn from it, and the ability to imagine and be filled with wonder like children should be. 

What has caused this?

Try not to groan, but I believe it is capitalism.

Think about it: For many, the ability to expand on innate creativity is aided in school, and let's face it, education has become a minor sidenote of the American life. People no longer feel that the key to the "American Dream" is an education; rather, kids have learned that you don't need an education to make money. Anyone can do it. But that's not what is important. Solving problems and understanding the problems that we face has never been about creativity by itself or being independent - it's been about educating ourselves and being educated enough to solve problems and understand problems to a higher degree. 

So what happens when creativity actually dies? When someone can't think outside the box when writing or drawing or creating? What happens when our education system collapses?

I don't know. I never read Fahrenheit 451.