Page 16

The Other Press. ember 9th, /982

   

e
Deadliest
Game!

by Brian Pharez

‘Jingle bells, jingle bells,
send our kids to war,’’ seems
to be the latest sales pitch
toy companies are shoving at

 

Look! Your child can learn to build a set. This
nuclear armed bomber is called a ‘‘Peace Maker."’
What a brainwash! The helicopter is openly called a
gunship.

General Infantry Joe, like John Doe. Only, this
nameless soldier is an infantryman. The anonymous
bullet dodger at the front lines. What ‘‘glory’’ is the

 

 

yutte=

PR

 

 

A tank! Now your child can barge through anything
he wants. After all, if it resists, he can blast it out of
his way. Watch out, little sister.

 

Six-guns and rifles. Shoot everything in sight! Kill!
Is this the mentality. we allow in society?

 

Ships, ships, ships. Learn to build a ship. Especially
the Trident Nuclear Submarine.

Photography by S ean Vanentini

us. It’s nothing new. The last
time war toys were more
popular than this year’s flood
was post WWII, pre Viet
Nam.

G.I. Joe hit the market at
the start of the Cold War and
faded away as radical unrest
gained popularity in the mid
tolate sixties.

Now the Viet Nam War is
gone from the daily papers,
and Reagan is trying to keep
his secret race with Androp-
ov out of the public attention
as much as possible.

‘Jingle bells, jingle bells,
G.I. Joe is back,’’ and he
came with reinforcements
Star Wars toys are popular.
Six-guns and rifles occupy
entire sections of shelves.

The market isn’t flooded all
at once, though. The toy
companies gradually bring in
the tide with Cowboys and
Indians, and add more here
and more there as they ex-
ploit the popularity of movies
and TV shows like Star Wars
and Battlestar Galactica.

‘*So what? We lecture our
children on the evils of war,”’
is a common response, but
children don’t retain these
lectures as they run off to
play ‘‘I killed you first.’’ The
lasting effect of these toys is
subliminal and devastating.
Children retain a sizeable
amount of the skills and
thought trains that develop
and form their lives.

Modern technology profits
from military research grants
and expenditures. Toy comp-
anies profit from modern
technology. With the mix-
ture of the two, toy compan-
ies graduate to video games.
And what ‘a sales pitch ad-
vertisers shove down our
throats. All these namebrand
brainwashing machines sold
like wildfire last Christmas
despite the poor economy.
Now children don’t have to
wait until they’re 5 feet: tall
to blow their allowances to
play video games - they’ve
invaded the home.

These ‘‘toys’’ are aimed at
a far younger and impression
able age group. They devel-
op good manual dexterity in
children, but they also learn
to kill. Kill the Space Invad-
ers! Kill the many space
clones that came with and
after Space Invaders! Tor-
pedo-those ships! Shoot the
Nukes that are raining on

MeSSARE.

Do you want your child to go and fight when
Reagan or Andropov call a bluff?

   

Photo by Sean Valentini and Graphicized by Brian Pharez

ees. Cro Bang!

our cities! Shoot these! Kill
those! Push the button be-
fore they can...

To learn button pushing;

operating computer screens
that display mass attacks of
whatever enemy that needs
shooting down.Teaching to
shoot first.

Toys are the prototype of

modern technological war-
fare: levers, dials, and of
course, ‘‘the button...”

At the time, I complained
but now I’m glad that my
mother screened the toys I
was allowed to have and ex-
plained, as best as I could
understand, why I couldn’t
have aG.I. Joe.