The Japanese anthropologist Tadao Umesao recognized the corrosive effects of television at its very inception.
Observing children change before the camera, he withdrew—an insight that foreshadows today’s camera-driven political behavior.

2016-07-10
He gave the reason succinctly: “Television corrupts people.”
Historians say that according to the laws of history, the lifespan of a one-party dictatorship is seventy years, and that this is what historical verification shows.
Tadao Umesao, an anthropologist and folklorist produced by Japan and without exaggeration among the greatest in the world, lived for several years across nearly all provinces of China conducting fieldwork.
This proves that he was a genuine scholar, standing in complete opposition to those who served as favored commentators for Asahi Shimbun.
People who make their living on television are unlikely to know that during the dawn of television, he was invited by broadcasters and became involved with TV.
He quickly ceased all involvement with television.
The reason, he said, was that “television corrupts people.”
While working on children’s educational programs, he noticed that the children appearing on screen were steadily deteriorating.
They began to behave and speak with an awareness of the camera.
This is surely the prototype of the camera-conscious rhetoric seen today among political operators such as those of the Democratic Party.
He witnessed, day by day, the disappearance of the innate purity children naturally possess.
For that reason, he declined further appearances.
To be continued.