Many people of all walks of life often speculate on what they consider to be the root of all evil. Some claim it is money that brings the Devil in society. Others seem to think that television is Satan's nickname. It's true that when examined, both may have "evil" qualities that can influence a large bulk of humanity, but this evil begins much before one is old enough to watch television and understand it, and even precedes the age when one develops a sick love for hard currency.
Yes, it's sad but true, the root of all evil is in fact a child's toys. These promote greed and materialism among young citizen of mankind before they have grasped the concept of these terms. Children are also affected for the rest of their lives by the toys they play with due to the image or ideas they promote.
In a society ruled unconsciously by consumerism, toys have become the means of promoting this to young innocent children. Every time they see a new toy on the market, it is a natural reaction for a young child to scream, "Mommy, Daddy!! I WANT IT!!!" Unfortunately they are unaware that they have fallen into the trap of a materialistic world and are very unlikely to escape it. As they grow older, and begin school, they make new friend who may potentially have more and better toys than they do. So, of course, they want to have the same toys as their friends do as well as other toys their friends will be jealous of. This is the earliest form of greed, jealousy, and competition that keeps the materialistic ideas alive. However, it is subconsciously pumped into the minds of children who will grow up to have the same attitude with everything that they encounter in life.
Certain toys promote specific images to children, which may seem harmless, but will in fact affect their lives greatly as they grow up. Let's take little girls' toys, for example. Probably 95% of all little girls in developed countries around the world have owned at least one Barbie doll. The original Barbie doll is a blonde haired, blue eyed, woman with a perfect figure. Sure, in the 80's, Barbie's producers created friends for her with brown hair and eyes, and dark skin in an attempt to satisfy the little girls who weren't blondes. But the knock-out figure of the Barbie doll was not eliminated. I've noticed that the little girls of my generation without blonde hair, have begun to bleach theirs (let's just ignore the fact that I happen to dye mine red); and those who grew up to have fuller figures now obsessing over losing weight. The latter having the greatest affect with regards to serious eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Both these disorders stem from a lack of self-confidence subconsciously instilled in young girls through the image Barbie creates.
Now let's take a look at little boys toys. In the 80's, I remember my male friends playing with G. I. Joes, He-Man, Transformers, dinky cars, and the likes. The first three toys mentioned promote violence and war, some more strongly than others. The effect of that is in a world dominated by male leaders, the answer to conflicts between nations has become war (and I'm not trying to be some politically correct feminist here). As for the dinky cars, well, technically there's no serious harm in those (except for the greed thing), they're actually a perfect pass time for young boys. However, for a girl to show any interest in these is almost unheard of. They would be regarded as "weird" and shunned by other females who played with dolls. Little boys who would tell girls, "what do you know about cars? You're only a girl," also adopted this attitude. The same went for boys who showed interest in dolls. This became so out of proportion that it was considered "wrong" for a man to show any sensitivity or emotion. If they did, they were immediately labeled as "fags." This brought on large groups of "gay bashers" who created riots against the sexual minority.
Maybe I sound completely cynical to you, but that's not what I'm trying to achieve. My point is that this new generation of kids is the most greedy, fucked up brats that late boomers and early Xers have ever spawned to replace themselves. Think about it, in about 20 years, the world will be in their hands. By now I'm probably sounding like a disgruntled generation Xer, think what you want but consider my thoughts next time you see some brat, I mean child, whining about wanting a new toy.