The Lion and the Unicorn

Wojcik-Andrews, Ian, 1952-
Phillips, Jerry (Jerry R.)
Telling Tales to Children: The Pedagogy of Empire in MGM's Kim and Disney's Aladdin
The Lion and the Unicorn - Volume 20, Number 1, June 1996, pp. 66-89

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Jerry Phillips and Ian Wojcik-Andrews - Telling Tales to Children: The Pedagogy of Empire in MGM's Kim and Disney's Aladdin - The Lion and the Unicorn 20:1 The Lion and the Unicorn 20.1 (1996) 66-89 Telling Tales to Children: The Pedagogy of Empire in MGM's Kim and Disney's Aladdin Jerry Phillips and Ian Wojcik-Andrews The mere story of their adventures, which to them were no adventures, on their road to and from school would have crisped a Western boy's hair. There was a boy who, he said, and none doubted, had helped his father to beat off with rifles from the veranda a rush of Akas, in the days when those head-hunters were bold against lonely plantations. And every tale was told in the even passionless voice of the native-born . . . Kim watched, listened, and approved. [The tales] . . . dealt with a life he knew and in part understood. The atmosphere suited him, and he throve by inches. (Kipling, Kim 172) I On the historical terrain of the modern experience, two things stand out with striking clarity: the ongoing process of capital accumulation, and the ongoing process of centralizing bureaucratic power. Capital accumulation originates in the exploitation of labor and the control of material resources; bureaucratic power flows, in an ever-widening capillary network, from the massive edifice of the State. Statist bureaucracy and capital accumulation go hand in hand; the former makes possible the latter, and the latter gives rise to the former. Thus,...