A few days ago I was talking about toy guns and the legal implications of its sale, it is something that I do not think is entirely clear. Today I bring you a beautiful reflection of the psychologist Violeta Alcocer about war weapons. Violence, he explains, is within the human being and we live it daily in society: from the subtle violence that is to ignore the crying of a child or punish or hit him, to the behaviors of power and imposition that surround us. There is also war and suffering that bring millions of deaths from violence in the world.
He symbolic game It is the way in which children elaborate their experiences. Violence is one of the realities that internalize and digest through play. If a child needs to play it, we cannot avoid it.
What we can avoid is the ethical background that lies in the choice of the toy. Children will use a stick or finger to represent violent death. But giving them a weapon that represents real weapons conveys a message: these are the objects that humans make to kill and it is normal for you to use them. And in a way it is an offense to people who have been killed with these weapons. Convey the message that those objects are something for everyday use What is normal for them to have is something that seems worrying to me. I don't know if you'll be satisfied, but of course I invite you to read the full article because it's hugely revealing.
