What's wrong with the world?

[arwen_lune]

Do you ever get this weird feeling, like a revelation, a sudden insight in why the world is such a messed-up place?

A shop here in the Netherlands sells toys. (not only toys). It sells, I swear I am not making this up, replica AK-47s and replicate Uzi's. army coloured.

I couldn't help myself and asked a shop employee if they really thought that was a suitable thing for a child to play with, and he went "Yeah, 'cause they sell really well."

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read the Darkover series of novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley? There's something in there called the Compact, which is basically an agreement that fighting can only be done using weapons that bring the fighter into arm's reach of his enemies, i.e. swords etc. No distance weapons. The idea being that to equalize risk and minimize extraneous destruction. I always found that morally very appealing.

I never owned any war toys of any sort, either, to the best of my recollection. Yes, they're popular, but that doesn't mean it should be encouraged.

[troo.livejournal.com]

I don't like any weapons what ever - the real things, or the toy replicas..
But how is this different than wooden swords children used to play with? 90% of the marketing is finding a new package for an old idea...
I don't like this idea, but this is not a new thing.

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

I actually ran into these while looking for toy swords for my Halloween costume, and I was trying to define the difference...

Perhaps because sword play is usually pretend-playing at knights and such, at history. A child in the street pretending to attack his friend/fellow knight is... for one thing having a go at a skill, for another thing using his imagination to bring history to life.

I can't quite explain why it feels so different. I just know that the other day there was a young boy in the street pointing his umbrella at people and making automatic-rifle-sounds and it upset me very deeply...

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Addendum: I think the connection with videogames is what bothers me here too. Kids playing with swords are usually playing out their own ideas, kids with toy-rifles are playing Doom...

I may very well be irrational about this. It still sickens me.

[sierra-le-oli.livejournal.com]

But how is this different than wooden swords children used to play with?

Depends on when you're talking about. Kids in the Middle Ages playing with wooden swords were being trained to violence. With kids in the last century or so, the training is more indirect because swords weren't used in real warfare. Kids with toy guns now are little different from my Middle Ages example.

I used to build atomic weapons...

[borgseawolf.livejournal.com]

Blah. This means nothing. Kids will make themselves guns out of sticks. I remember when I was a kid, we had a 'no toy guns' policy in kindergarten. The result? We either beat each other with sticks and fists, or we built machine guns out of Lego(tm) bricks. The kid who had most toy guns smuggled into the playing hall was the king of the day. I don't think any of us has become evil warmonger, at least not because of that.
There's no point in hiding the real world from kids, they'll get to know it somehow, anyway. You just have to explain bad stuff, not forbid it. Guns are fun. And remember: falling anvils do not kill cartoon characters. Cartoon characters kill cartoon characters.

[jelmer.livejournal.com]

So they're bringing them up to be terrorists? Otherwise they'd have replica M16s.

Seriously though, I was under the impression that lookalike replicas were illegal in this flat little country of ours. You learn something every day.