Now that school is out, the neighborhood children have days on end to run around like little banshees. The other night two of the male 7/8 year olds -- one from across the street, the other from next door -- came over to what they refer to as the "Strawberry House" (we don't mow our front yard, we harvest it!) to show Della and I their new toy guns. After showing us all the shiny knobs and gizmos on each weapon, they went gallivanting off into the misty dusk shooting make-believe desperadoes or each other as they went.
While their parents don't seem to have the slightest misgivings with providing their children with make-believe weaponry, it sends a shiver up my spine. Though I am not a parent, if I had chosen that path in life, I can tell you unequivocally that my children would not be allowed to run around the neighborhood pretending to shoot people!
I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I didn't grow up on a hippie commune -- though there is certainly nothing wrong with growing up on one -- where we practiced love your neighbor 24/7. In the efforts of full disclosure, I was steeped in the glorification of war and gun culture as a child just like most of my contemporaries.
I owned numerous toy guns of all varieties. I played Cowboys 'N Indians and war games. I owned a full set of G.I. Joes. I had boxes and boxes filled with plastic toy soldiers and I got them out routinely to engage in many a pitched battle with other kid's plastic toy soldiers in the neighborhood. And despite the fact I spent countless hours pretending to gun down friend and foe alike, I didn't grow up to be a murder.
So, what's my beef?
I simply find it mind-boggling that our society allows, even encourages, children to run around pretending to kill others! The various religions and philosophies that permeate our world talk about the sanctity of life, yet this sanctity is trivialized by allowing children to pretend they are ending the lives of their fellow beings.
We don't allow children to pretend to rape others! Why? We don't want them to learn that rape is an acceptable behavior.
Many conservatives don't want homosexual teachers in the classroom. They fear that impressionable minds will come to see that there is nothing wrong with being homosexual. (Of course, there isn't anything wrong with it!)
But this same principal somehow doesn't apply to pretending to kill other people. In this singular case, we're told that impressionable minds can discern the difference between make-believe and reality.
On the surface, this contention has some validity. I would guess that the vast majority of children who grow up glorifying gun violence and war do not later become adult murderers or soldiers. But while they may not ever use a real gun to end the life of another human being, they too often support domestic and foreign policies that do mean the deaths of countless faceless people and they support such policies with bravado and gusto.
If they hadn't learned as children that war and gun violence are acceptable make-believe activities to wile away a summer vacation, would they be so quick to support others pulling the trigger?
While their parents don't seem to have the slightest misgivings with providing their children with make-believe weaponry, it sends a shiver up my spine. Though I am not a parent, if I had chosen that path in life, I can tell you unequivocally that my children would not be allowed to run around the neighborhood pretending to shoot people!
I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I didn't grow up on a hippie commune -- though there is certainly nothing wrong with growing up on one -- where we practiced love your neighbor 24/7. In the efforts of full disclosure, I was steeped in the glorification of war and gun culture as a child just like most of my contemporaries.
I owned numerous toy guns of all varieties. I played Cowboys 'N Indians and war games. I owned a full set of G.I. Joes. I had boxes and boxes filled with plastic toy soldiers and I got them out routinely to engage in many a pitched battle with other kid's plastic toy soldiers in the neighborhood. And despite the fact I spent countless hours pretending to gun down friend and foe alike, I didn't grow up to be a murder.
So, what's my beef?
I simply find it mind-boggling that our society allows, even encourages, children to run around pretending to kill others! The various religions and philosophies that permeate our world talk about the sanctity of life, yet this sanctity is trivialized by allowing children to pretend they are ending the lives of their fellow beings.
We don't allow children to pretend to rape others! Why? We don't want them to learn that rape is an acceptable behavior.
Many conservatives don't want homosexual teachers in the classroom. They fear that impressionable minds will come to see that there is nothing wrong with being homosexual. (Of course, there isn't anything wrong with it!)
But this same principal somehow doesn't apply to pretending to kill other people. In this singular case, we're told that impressionable minds can discern the difference between make-believe and reality.
On the surface, this contention has some validity. I would guess that the vast majority of children who grow up glorifying gun violence and war do not later become adult murderers or soldiers. But while they may not ever use a real gun to end the life of another human being, they too often support domestic and foreign policies that do mean the deaths of countless faceless people and they support such policies with bravado and gusto.
If they hadn't learned as children that war and gun violence are acceptable make-believe activities to wile away a summer vacation, would they be so quick to support others pulling the trigger?
I don't know why some parents are so comfortable with this form of play but agree with everything you said in this post.
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