Okay, take a good look at these stickers that I found at Eckerd Drug the other day:
Take a close look. These are clearly meant to be vehicles of war, as clearly communicated by the camouflage, armored appearance, styling of the aircraft, the tank-style treads, the big white stars, etc. If you're halfway sharp, you'll notice one thing missing, though: there are no actual weapons anywhere to be seen. Not one cannon, machinegun, missle, or bomb. I find the intentionality pretty obvious, and equally obvious I find the cause. That same half-assed, nay, quarter-assed attitude that gave birth to the 45 second "fighting is not the answer" lessons at the ends of episodes of He-Man and G.I. Joe, taken to the extreme (see footnote 1), has given birth to this.
Little kids aren't stupid, for crying out loud! If you don't want to buy your kid war toys, then don't buy your kid war toys. If he wants to play at blowing shit up (and what little boy doesn't? [see footnote 2]), a turretless tank will not steer him to be a kinder, gentler little tyke. He'll either just use it to ram and run over stuff, or it'll end up at the bottom of the toy chest. Hell, when I was tiny I used to grab Florida (and sometimes Oklahoma) off my United States puzzle map and use them as guns.
We all know how to raise well adjusted, peaceful children. My Transformers waged epic battles. I never built a Lego vehicle that lacked some kind of gun turret. I loved Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, Max Payne, Halo, Battlefield: 1942, Call of Duty, and Doom 3. I would much rather be mugged and knifed than shoot someone. Go figure!
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1. An extreme half-assed attitude? Is that irony? I don't even know anymore!
2. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure some little girls do, too.
Take a close look. These are clearly meant to be vehicles of war, as clearly communicated by the camouflage, armored appearance, styling of the aircraft, the tank-style treads, the big white stars, etc. If you're halfway sharp, you'll notice one thing missing, though: there are no actual weapons anywhere to be seen. Not one cannon, machinegun, missle, or bomb. I find the intentionality pretty obvious, and equally obvious I find the cause. That same half-assed, nay, quarter-assed attitude that gave birth to the 45 second "fighting is not the answer" lessons at the ends of episodes of He-Man and G.I. Joe, taken to the extreme (see footnote 1), has given birth to this.
Little kids aren't stupid, for crying out loud! If you don't want to buy your kid war toys, then don't buy your kid war toys. If he wants to play at blowing shit up (and what little boy doesn't? [see footnote 2]), a turretless tank will not steer him to be a kinder, gentler little tyke. He'll either just use it to ram and run over stuff, or it'll end up at the bottom of the toy chest. Hell, when I was tiny I used to grab Florida (and sometimes Oklahoma) off my United States puzzle map and use them as guns.
We all know how to raise well adjusted, peaceful children. My Transformers waged epic battles. I never built a Lego vehicle that lacked some kind of gun turret. I loved Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, Max Payne, Halo, Battlefield: 1942, Call of Duty, and Doom 3. I would much rather be mugged and knifed than shoot someone. Go figure!
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1. An extreme half-assed attitude? Is that irony? I don't even know anymore!
2. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure some little girls do, too.
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You need to update. Your journals/comments always amuse me.