Merry Christmas
I stumbled upon the above image last night. Food for thought as the holiday season fast approaches.
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This picture displays a very ironic scene.
It combines two opposite spectrums, one being Christmas, a time of peace, frivolity and joy, and the other being violence, or the implication of violence. I find the irony especially prevalent on the child’s face, a smile. This implies that he is happy that he receives a gun for Christmas, a celebration of the birth of Christ, which was supposedly meant to bring peace to Earth. I also find the father figure quite provoking, as he seems like he supports the child, or at the very least is neutral about the matter.
This image depicts a young boy carrying a gun he has probably just received from Santa as a Christmas gift. The complete irony within this image is that Christmas is meant to be a celebration of hope, light, love and affection, generosity and goodness, as well as peace. However, the fact that this child has possibly been wishing for a gun for Christmas shows that there is no hope for our future if our future generation has been taught to believe that guns are a cause for happiness. It is also ironic that a cause for the darkness of killing and tearing apart of families and lives has been given to the boy on an occasion to celebrate light, goodness, love and peace.
I believe this picture shows the thoughts of the young generation who seem to only care about violence and things associated with it (e.g guns). This picture also shows perhaps the Christmas is no longer as it used to be as guns are a symbol of violence, intolerance, apathy, completely opposite to the values of Christmas such as tolerance, peace. In addition, it will brings up the question, what would the world be like if Santa Existed?
This image simply displays a young boy posing in a Santa’s Grotto like area with presumably his dad in the background. However, it is not the happy smiling faces that make one stop in awe, its the fact that there are huge, black guns in the background all pointing in various directions. One is even held proudly by the blond child as he smiles in obvious glee. Although this photo provokes feelings of rolling over and laughing, the saddest part of this is that it is a lot closer to reality than us citizens think. In a generation where the world’s technology is accessible at our tender fingertips, its no wonder that even younger children are exposed to even older ideas and things. Therefore, undoubtedly violence has become even popular to precocious preteens. This picture perfectly shows an exaggerated version of how violence has influenced the younger generation. It shows how darker things that provoke murderous intentions are being tossed around like child’s play. Visiting Santa in his grotto is a act that most younger brats are eager to participate in. So showing a younger child in Santa’s grotto holding a very mature item (i.e a gun for instance) perfectly represents the loss of innocence and the ignorance of it in today’s ‘developed’ world.
It’s morally and ethically wrong on every level to be giving a little boy a gun especially when it appears that a child authority figure is giving them out. It appears to be some gun club’s Christmas promotion and the dad who kind of looks like Billy Mays is taking the kid to the gun Santa for guns. I mean, if it’s just for fun then sure. But if we are actually talking about the influence of these things, then it is definitely wrong. Especially when these aren’t mear hunting rifles, they are machine guns. Built specifically for harming a large amount of people.
Americans and their guns. Nothing says Happy Holidays like an automatic weapon.
Exactly, thats how this generation has been raised. The influences are already deeply embedded into both our culture and lifestyles, theres not much of a point attempting to turn that around anymore, so might as well just accept it and laugh it off as pop culture had taught us.