YABBA DABBA DEEP: FRED FLINTSTONE & ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Image:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Fred_Flintstone_Hari...

Dedicated to the misguided librarians and video store managers who file DVD copies of  The Flintstones in the children's section.

I could flatter myself by quoting Nietzsche about maturity remembering the seriousness of the child at play. I could remember Khalil Gibran's words about saving us from the wisdom that does not cry; the knowledge that does not laugh; and the greatness that does not bow before children. But then I was reminded – twice and loudly - by my local librarian that I could not find a copy of The Flintstones among other DVDs because it was in the children's section.

Perhaps I had somehow missed life's greatest gift- as Robert Burns once said- “to see ourselves as others see us.”

Reality check:  Maybe I am a big kid after all.

Having recently celebrated my 101^st birthday, I was elated to be given a DVD set of the second season of The Flintstones. One of my prized possessions, worn only on formal occasions, is a silk tie with Fred Flintstone screaming “yabba dabba doo” across it. When informed by my American friends of the “ hard asses” that roam the corporate jungle, I asked one good friend, a Harvard Business School graduate, to apply “The Fred Flintstone Theorem of Business Communication”, before asking if it had been taught at Harvard (considering that I made it up). My friend, who knows the editorial staff at the Harvard Business Review, is giving serious thought to The Fred Flintstone Theorem becoming widely published.

Remember that you saw it in Chaff first.

The Fred Flintstone Theorem posits that, whenever engaged in any high-level meeting, in business or politics, can we imagine the other party shouting out , in a moment of jubilation, “Yabba Dabba Doo?” If we can envisage the other party making the said gesture, it may be safe to assume that s/he possesses a certain depth of humanity, sense of humour, good nature, and empathy with other people. For good measure, the other party will come across as a “ real person”. Could Hitler or Stalin or Hannibal Lecter ever do “Yabba Dabba Doo”? It bears thinking about. In any event, the credibility of a theory depends on its consistency over time and its absorption of diverse data. We could do a lot worse than to get a team of academics onto it right away.

Furthermore, to my relief that I am not suffering from any regression into childhood, The Flintstones was, as creators Hanna and Barbera originally intended, an animated situation comedy pitched at grown-ups. In the early days of cinema, cartoons and animation were a novel, money-spinning attempt to get crowds of adults into picture theatres to marvel at a new art form. However, with the advent of television in the 1950's, and the switch in jobs for Hanna and Barbera from movie animation to television cartoons in the children's after school time-slot, Hanna and Barbera struck gold with The Huckleberry Hound Show. After making their name as a strong production house, Hanna-Barbera introduced The Flintstones, which became the jewel in their crown. In much the same way that drinking beer doesn't change me from a human being into a beer keg, putting The Flintstones in the children's hour programme slot doesn't make it an exclusively kids' show.

Now that's all  off my chest, I 'll introduce you all to the wider social and political implications of the Flintstone phenomenon that I touched on earlier, with the Fred Flintstone Theorem.

Firstly, let's recap. What's the appeal? The town of Bedrock is the modern world, or at least the USA in the 1960's, lived out in stone-age conditions.

As if to say that not only are some things universal, such as problems with the boss and the in-laws, but they are also timeless.

The everyday issues of how we relate to one another at work and play will go on. But the technology of the 20^th century is powered by dinosaurs and mammoths. Air travel is by pterodactyl, while mammoths, varying in size, make up household appliances ranging from vacuum cleaners to showers.

Secondly, Fred Flintstone was based on a character played by renowned American comedian Jackie Gleason, in the 1950's television sitcom The Honeymooners: a frustrated, blustering blue-collar worker with a heart of gold, devoted to his wife and best friend, bettering himself with get-rich -quick schemes that don't always come off.

He represents a tension between advancement and contentment, which epitomizes the American lifestyle: Being at once able to count one's blessings while at the same time realizing there's much more treasure hidden over yonder.

Thirdly, The Flintstones embody that world admired, and chronicled, by French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, who travelled across the USA and wrote down what he saw in Democracy in America (1835).

Tocqueville's  perspective on America, and Fred Flintstone's iconic representation of the USA thereof, are wrapped up in Tocqueville's observation: “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great”.

And Fred Flintstone is by no means great. But he is certainly good.

Yabba -Dabba -Doo!

Tocqueville's key observations on the virtues that make up the fabric of American life centre around the balance of liberty and equality, individuality and community.

Short words to describe an aspirational end?: “Happy at Home.”

Meet the Flintstones!

-ADAM GREENWELL , APRIL 2009

FOR CHAFF, THE NEWSPAPER OF MASSEY UNIVERSITY-NEW ZEALAND'S DEFINING UNIVERSITY.