Monday, July 4, 2011

Sons of Guns


There are plenty of inspirational people whom I would love to hear and know more about in this world and therefore, I am a little surprised to see an advertisement about this man and his daughter who make weapons and boast about it. It is a kind of reality show where weapons of any kind are made and then tried out on open land or inanimate objects or this is what the snippets revealed.
It is on one of my favorite channels, The Discovery Channel, which has so many shows about nature, destruction and, in my opinion, positive eye-opening programs. It builds awareness about what goes on in the world around us and many of my entries are inspired by these programs.
So you can imagine my surprise when I first saw the advert on Sons of Guns; a show which, to me, looked so negative and defeated the purpose of the channel. The advert showed people firing these artilleries, hand grenades with launchers and all sorts of unrecognizable weapons into the bush. It oozed violence, emanated negative vibes and brought shivers down my spine.  
Do we really need such programs at our day and time to be shown in such a positive way? The man and his daughter seemed extremely proud of making those weapons… weapons that are used to kill any possible living thing and create such damage and destruction to any place they hit or land on. We have so much destruction and death caused by such evil contraptions, we honestly do not need more invented and improved on. I know I am being unrealistic, and I know that sometimes I am a dreamer… but shouldn’t we destroy these man-made-evil toys and focus on inventing ‘contraptions’ that could  build  the world instead of destroy it?

5 comments:

Jan said...

Keep dreaming Lana. The world needs dreamers like you to help take it forward into the future. I agree - I'm sure there are lots of people that we would love to see programmes about instead. Did you write or email to let them know your throughts?

nazelet said...

I'm surprised to hear that they aired this kind of show. Doesn't that kind of glorify lovers of violence? Why spread it around so more people can get addicted to violence. If you're not killing a person you are hunting an innocent animal. Ugh. This whole culture of violence makes me physically sick.

Tabouleh said...

You are both such wonderful positive entities... and I am blessed to have you as my friends...
I believe that we are sensitive to such issues and humanitarian to such a degree that it actually physically pains us to see such evil programs and devices being shown in such a positive/fun entertaining light...
People I would love to see programs about are the people of the forests in the Amazon... inspirational stories of poor people who have strive to become successful and improve their standard of living... people with difficult physical conditions who have overcome the obstacle and are happy... and any program about relief/fund raising/charity efforts... anything would be better than watching programs about wars/killing/weapons over and over again...

I watch the History Channel often... watching programs about WWII and the atrocities committed then and I think to myself... how can people stoop so low and live with themselves for committing such acts of violence?... and I think to myself... Ha... this definitely would teach us a lesson that this should never ever happen again at our day and age... and then I look at the world and what is happening and I cry... we have not learned a lesson at all... on the contrary... nothing much was learned from WWII... atrocities are still being committed... there are still impoverished people all around us... there are still refugee camps... there are still people killing one another for oil or whatever... violence is still ongoing... We could have learned Big time from that evil war... what a waste of precious people's lives!

Hilary said...

I understand how you feel. When my (now 24 and 21 year old) sons were little, I avoided weapon-based toys of every kind. I just couldn't wrap my mind around a child emulating killing. Even their water pistols were animal-shaped and less gun-like.

Fast forward a number of years. My older son is now an officer in the Canadian military. Oh I have people who remind me, and come close to accusing me of being the reason behind his career choice.. had I not been so restrictive... etc.

But I know that we instilled a deep respect for what weaponry is about in my boys. It never was a toy. He never approached handling weapons as "fun" or "play" and he has a deep respect for what's right and wrong.

I hate(d) the thought of my child's hands holding guns and other weaponry but I'd trust them in his hands before most anyone else.

As for this father/daughter team. I haven't seen or heard of this show and I'd have to see it before forming a lasting opinion but part of me has to marvel at the art of being able to craft anything by hand.

Tabouleh said...

HI Hilary,
Thank you for your comment... I am not sure when it will start airing but they have advertised it here in Thailand and on that channel...

I also do not like my children holding any form of gun shaped toys... but my husband, who is also Canadian, has a different view on this. I find it violent and would teach them to take guns as toys when in reality they are far from it... My husband thinks that my son (5 years old) needs to learn how to aim ... why? I am not too sure... it is probably because his family come from a military background... but he has bought the children nerf guns and even bought pellet guns... I am totally against all this... and keep trying to teach my son, through words, that the real ones are not toys and that they could kill and hurt someone... I am not too sure what else to do. I will worry about ti once he is older...

As for inventing such contraptions... yes it is interesting to see how people can be so creative to make such guns but the end result of it all is violent... why not be creative with something that would benefit the human race instead.