Parents to blame in consumerism

Society and the law frown on adults who exploit children. Lower circles of Dante's freezing inferno are the domiciles where these evil-doers should dwell.

Yet in spite of voiced visceral loathing for such creatures, they are multiplying like fleas carrying plagues. Look around and see the dressing, toting, eating, playing, living advertisements our children have become, and you know that commercial exploitation of children is a growth industry. Further, it is not punished by the ice of Hades but is rewarded by the riches of the earth.

Consumerism directed at children is a free market enslaving parents with the trinkets of corporate greed. Kids are decorated with brands and promotional material turning them into breathing billboards. They have the toys from the latest movie purchased at the fast-food chain that paid to place their product. Their shirts are images of the most popular Saturday-morning cartoon character, which is found on the back of the sugar cereal which pays for broadcast of the hero who is made strong by using the special soap which comes in assorted colors printed on the purses and plants sold by the movie distributor.

A movie is not a movie these days, and TV is not entertainment, but both are commercials to sell the dolls, books, shoes that light up, games and junior meals.

The police would arrest kidnappers of a young child and put them away for life, but these dealers of junk abduct our children's imagination, playtime and even their very thoughts, in order to capture the parent's dollars.

There is a repulsion of the thought of brainwashing someone, but every time a child watches a TV show, a movie or hears music, there is an alteration of children's minds to turn them into consuming machines. It is like the advertisers are training a rat to run a maze, but it is the children who they are conditioning to run to their parents and beg, whine, ask repeatedly for something they were shown on the screen that they now want more than anything, including family peace, nutrition, common sense and wise expenditure of home finances.

One never hears that after seeing a commercial for a new game or some colored drink that the children will run into the front room and ask their parents what they can do to clean the house or help the elderly in their neighborhood. Kids, after watching Saturday cartoons, never want a second helping of green beans. It is like the joke in Reader's Digest where one never hears of a drunk getting plastered and going out and painting an orphanage. Ads for sugar do not build moral, educated citizens in a democracy.

While there are attempts to limit ads to kids, society is the silent partner in stealing children's innocence. Why do children have to have shirts with TV characters? Because we buy them. Why do food companies get away with addicting our children to high-fat and high-sugar fake foods? Because we adults permit it to happen. We not only tolerate, we are the co-conspirators dumping the toxic waste into our grocery carts along with the other artificial mouth stuffers. Why is there a thievery of a child's imagination so all their play is a poor imitation of what an uncaring adult has projected onto their visual cortex? Because we turn on the TV and buy the movie tickets. We protest the forced recruitment of children into armies of war, but we tolerate our children marching around our barracks homes with all sorts of imitation weapons of mass destruction modeled after the real armament of the kid killers — because we want our peace at the cost of being the gun runners ourselves. We parents betrayingly open the door, let the exploiters in and then show them the nursery. If we do, then we better get warmer coats for Dante's damning cold.

Joseph Cramer, M.D., is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a practicing pediatrician for more than 25 years and an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah. He can be reached at jgcramermd@yahoo.com.