Indecisive

There was a dilemma going on inside of me, at the time that I began this article. It had something to do with the title of the article. For starters, the title of this piece seems to have nothing to do with the context of the piece--or maybe it does. You decide.

The Split Decision is a term that I may or may not have invented. It depends on where you seen it first. If you remember seeing this term on another website, then I guess it certainly means that I didn’t come up with it first. But in this context--the context that I have created for this term--it has come to mean a parent’s difficult decision to determine the maturity of their children, only to abdicate that position soon after to assume their original one. They may do so out of fear, or out of the need to exhibit parental authority--in which case they may be either on “power trips” or, like I said in the last sentence or so, fearful.

Television has tremendous power over the human mind. According to my brother-in-law, it can control you in ways that you can’t even believe. Whenever I go out shopping in places like Wal-Mart, I see fellow shoppers just mindlessly picking up familiar brands of foods--over the more generic, inexpensive ones (like Keebler’s over Sam’s Choice Cookies). Usually, people are more familiar with Keebler’s than Sam’s Choice because, let’s face it; the name brand Keebler is more omnipresent than Sam’s Choice. But even the aforementioned is debatable--at least half of all Wal-Mart’s products bear the label “Sam’s Choice”. But aside from being in stock every time you see it, that’s as omnipresent as Sam’s Choice products might get.

Parents are familiar with the power of the media. Older people might remember that after televised shows like “The Lone Ranger”, commercials appeared for these little toy cap pistols. And soon, millions of these then-young people wanted little toy pistols because they looked so much like the “real” pistols that the Lone Ranger had. The commercial increased the desire to become “like the Lone Ranger”. Advertised Barbies were the same way. Most little girls wanted ‘em, because their hair, clothes and similar features were so customizable. Boys wanted the G. I. Joe dolls that soon followed--the doll symbolized bravery, courage, and strength. Back then, if you owned either doll, you would perhaps be reminded of the personas that the commercials sold you.

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