
The Elf on the Shelf is preparing your child to live in a future police state - woah
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/12/16/the-elf-on-the-shelf-is-preparing-your-child-to-live-in-a-future-police-state-professor-says/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop
======
rdtsc
Childrens' stories and even lullabies have always sounded creepy. You know
"rock-a-bye baby" for example. And I get asked "Daddy, why did they put the
crib in the tree and let the baby fall and get hurt!???". I didn't think much
about it first, then once I did, it does sound a bit off.

Then my kid is freaked out about Santa. "What? This person in funny clothes
will break into our house, at night, while I am asleep, and I am supposed to
be happy about it". Yeah that is pretty creepy too.

Then Elf On The Shelf. Wife said all the friends are doing this thing with
their kids. We decided not to, it is too strange. Now reading this it makes it
even worse. You know back in the day it used to be "God is watching you. Don't
do bad things. Don't think bad thoughts. Etc.". That is very effective
brainwashing. Once done on a child they will cary guilt and this nagging
feeling of being watched and critisized with them for life (Hey isn't that
Super Ego? I saw someone drop Slavoj Zizek's name, he would know). Today not
many people are religious but I think they are earning for a substitute.
Perhaps unconsciously if you will. This is that substitute -- "Elf will see
you mix salt in the sugar bowl and will punish you".

~~~
heleph
I've been watching the original Thomas the tank engine with my son and was a
bit surprised to notice the theme around obeying the Fat Controller's
authority.

He is a mostly benevolent authority figure who helps the engines out of their
scrapes, but engines that defy him or disturb the peace are punished. In an
early episode he left an engine bricked up in a tunnel. Quite a few engines
have also been sent away as well.

It is slightly funny to see childhood again through adult eyes but I'm not
sure what I'll do when my son is old enough to understand these things. Im
sure the idea of being left alone in a tunnel would have terrified me as a
child. :)

~~~
bhouston
My daughter loves Caillou,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caillou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caillou),
which is a fairly educational show focused on social relationships and the
challenges that young kids run into. Overall it is actually pretty good and
doesn't have strange authority figures. But Caillou is a whiner who has
tantrums, and my daughter now whines and has tantrums almost exactly like
Caillou. I'm pretty sure she learned it from the show.

So all these shows have consequences, even the good ones. I'm not sure what is
worse, whining and tantrums or deference to authority figures?

PS. I'm not the only one who thinks Caillou is a whiner:
[http://google.com/#q=caillou+whiner](http://google.com/#q=caillou+whiner)

~~~
blacksmith_tb
Without choosing sides, I think it's pretty clear that Caillou's creators are
presenting an approach to parenting that involves encouraging kids to emote.
Which is often not a lot of fun to be around, of course, but the opposite
approach could amount to telling kids to shut up because you don't want to
know how they feel. My suspicion is that kids will self-limit eventually, as
part of developmental growth, and that worrying too much about either extreme
is probably pointless. My gripe is that Caillou's pacing is so vague and
dreamy that essentially almost nothing happens in an entire episode.

~~~
bhouston
Interesting. I didn't know that "encouraging kids to emote" is a thing, but I
guess it could be.

~~~
ende
I never knew kids had trouble emoting. Emoting is all that the ones I know do.

------
bougiefever
Ever since it came out, I have told my children that he is cute, but he's a
spy. He is not allowed in our house. I tell them that I would never tell Santa
about their mistakes so they can be assured of getting presents under the
tree. What kind of pressure is that for a young child?! One of the rules is
that you aren't supposed to touch the doll. I tell my children that if they
see that subversive bastard (I don't use those words to them), they should
grab him with both hands and throw him out of our house. My daughter was
worried he would run back to Santa and tell what she had done, so she decided
that if she found him she would throw him in the fireplace. I settled on
putting him in a box until after Christmas. I can't condone violence, even to
a doll. We named him Google.

~~~
iollmann
We have C. Popinkins appear on the holidays. He has no effect on the
children's behavior. It is more like where is Waldo? They like the story too.

The experience is a good yearly reminder to me just how differently my
children perceive and understand the world than I do. At Christmas time, we
and many other families make a special effort to bend the world a bit towards
their way of thinking.

Magical.

------
Animats
A few weeks ago HN had a story about a plush toy which "checked in" with the
vendor using RFID beacons.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8578802](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8578802)
I wrote " _Coming soon, the Internet-enabled Elf on the Shelf. In stores for
Xmas! .. It sees you when you 're sleeping. It knows when you're awake. It
knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. You better
watch out. Brought to you by Google and the U.S Department of Homeland
Security."_

Now DuffelBlog has picked up on this concept:

SNOWDEN: ‘Elf On A Shelf’ Actually Hugely Successful NSA Project
[http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/12/elf-on-a-shelf-
snowden/](http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/12/elf-on-a-shelf-snowden/)

(I know someone who makes plush animals. I'm really tempted to have her put a
camera in an Elf on the Shelf.)

------
anigbrowl
Good grief, what a hideous concept. It would make an interesting social
science study to see whether ownership of/interest in purchasing this toy
correlates with authoritarian attitudes.

If you need a mental purge after encountering this I recommend Slavoj Zizek's
_Pervert 's guide to Ideology_. The 'Elf on the Shelf' embodies the Lacanian
psychoanalytic concept of 'the big other'.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pervert's_Guide_to_Ideology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pervert's_Guide_to_Ideology)

~~~
xnull2guest
Not authoritarian attitudes per se, but propensity to internalize the sense
that one ought to behave as if one is being watched because A.) it's likely
that it may very well be true and B.) the punishment / reward structure in
place is both justified and aligned with overseen personal choices.

It would be interesting to see if this toy specifically correlates with these
feelings (would be a hard multi-decade study to design...) but I do think
there is the point to be made at large that we exist in a surveillance state,
and in fact that since at least the 1700s these forces have been very powerful
in shaping Western culture. (For that I would suggest reading Foucault,
Gilliom, J.B. Rule and Dandeker.)

------
petercooper
_but we argue that if a kid is okay with this bureaucratic elf spying on them
in their home, it normalizes the idea of surveillance_

Bazollocks. Before the Elf turned up, my children had already become used to
two far worse "spies" that can follow them around the house and issue summary
justice: their parents! The idea that surveillance is universally nefarious
and undesirable, even when limited in nature or scope, seems a tired and
stereotypically American trope to me.

~~~
unclebucknasty
There's a pretty massive difference between being watched and/or sanctioned by
some strange, foreign, powerful figure and being "surveilled" and disciplined
by loving, interactive parents with whom you are emotionally bonded and who
also otherwise care for you, provide for your every need, painstakingly
explain wrong and right, etc.

------
unclebucknasty
This was perpetuated by our kids' school and our kids actually explained the
rules to us. It made me extremely uncomfortable. It has a certain "presence"
about it that is tied to the story of its supposed purpose. I find that it
absolutely brings this strange feeling of opening your home to an outside
influence. That description is somewhat vague, but the feeling is absolutely
real and visceral.

So, there is the authoritarian component. Beyond that, I didn't like the idea
of this little thing intruding on our responsibility as parents and, to some
extent, usurping our authority by presuming to share it. It is odd to defer to
this silly little Elf. We don't need an Elf to help us raise our kids, thank
you very much. I'm also not a big Santa fan for this and other reasons.

So, in some ways, this thing is conditioning parents as well. We have been
"put upon" by our school to continue this, which lends a subtle pressure to
conform to societal norms, no matter how new or questionable. And, in this
case, that norm is to defer to some outside authority, with whom we are
completely unfamiliar.

All of this is made even worse by the fact that it is the product of one
person's imagination, and was meant for commercial gain.

~~~
theorique
Could you perhaps subvert this by allying with the children against the elf?
(e.g. put the elf in a box or something like that)

There's always the legend of Krampus to be truly terrifying.

~~~
unclebucknasty
> _subvert this by allying with the children against the elf_

Not a half-bad idea. I guess the natural progression would lead to an
inevitable coup against Santa as well.

> _There 's always the legend of Krampus to be truly terrifying._

Somehow hadn't heard that legend, but just looked it up. That's just plain
wrong/traumatic. Why even bother with the carrot of Santa if you're going to
go that far with the stick on the other side?

------
trhway
well, any religion (and Santa Claus is just a rare nice one among religions'
artifacts) is about being watched and recorded (btw, now that we can do it
ourselves may be can do away with religions :). Picking up on the Elf is kind
of strange. He is at least not going to condemn you to an eternity in a
boiling cauldron what "merciful Gods" typically would do out of "pure love for
you soul". Or may be this is exactly why they chose to pick on him :)

~~~
joezydeco
It may not be eternal damnation, but for a kid that believes their presents
might not make it to the tree on Christmas morning, it might as well be.

At this time of year if I can get the kids to ratchet it down by pointing to
the elf, I'll take what I can get.

~~~
trhway
>if I can get the kids to ratchet it down by pointing to the elf, I'll take
what I can get.

hey, you're only doing your parental duty of developing super-ego of your
children :)

------
retrogradeorbit
Not just Elf on the Shelf. Check out Disney's Shutterbug Time:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yw30WXXQb0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yw30WXXQb0)

~~~
nosuchthing
Reminiscent of how the CIA backed the production [1] of an Animal Farm cartoon
as PSYOPS against the USSR.

Shutterbug is more fightning considering the content is conditioning for
ubiquitous surveillance drones flying everywhere.

[1] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11209390/How-the-
CIA...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11209390/How-the-CIA-brought-
Animal-Farm-to-the-screen.html)

------
sjcsjc
A little off topic, but in terms of kids' stories and dubious messages my
favourite example is Rumpelstiltskin.

Firstly it shows an abusive dictator taking what he wants with force and
threats (the King says he'll marry the miller's daughter if she creates enough
gold for him, but kill her if she doesn't). This is not portrayed as a bad
thing, and no justice is ever done for it.

Secondly it suggests that a contract freely entered into can be reneged upon
later if you simply change your mind (the miller's daughter, now the queen,
refuses to hand over the baby as she'd previously agreed to do, in order to
save her life from the baby's father).

I suppose it could be argued that the contract was not entered freely by the
miller's daughter, since she was under mortal threat. However, it was not the
other party doing the threatening, but a third party (the king). Perhaps a
lawyer could comment on this.

Or maybe it's just a nice story and I'm reading too much into it ;-)

~~~
tzs
I've been reading Grimm's fairy tales, and a few of them (heck, most of them)
leave me wondering why the heck people would tell that story. For instance,
there's one called "The Turnip".

There are two brothers, both soldiers. One is rich, one is poor. The poor one
gives up soldiering and becomes a gardner. He grows a huge turnip, and gives
it to the King as a gift. The King is impressed, and declares that the gardner
shall be poor no more, and gives him gifts, proclaiming that he shall have
even more than his brother.

The brother then gives the King gifts, expecting to get rewarded by the King
and return to being wealthier than his brother. The King is impressed, and
gives the brother the most impressive thing the King has--the giant turnip.
That pisses the soldier brother off, and he hires murderers to kill the
gardner brother.

The murderers lure gardner brother out to the woods, and prepare to hang him,
but they hear a traveller approaching and panic, and only manage to get the
gardner stuffed in a sack that they hang from a tree and then they run off.

By the time the traveller arrives on the scene, the gardner brother has
managed to make a hole in the sack and get his head out. He hails the
traveller, and finds out that the traveller is a student in search of
knowledge. The student asks what the gardner is doing in the sack. The gardner
tells him it is the Sack of Wisdom, and by hanging in it from a tree, one
acquires the secrets of the universe.

The student begs to be allowed into the sack, and the gardner agrees to change
places. The student rescues him, gets into the sack, and the gardner hoists it
up the tree. The gardner then steals the student's horse and goes home. (Some
versions have the gardner send someone an hour or two later to go cut the
student down, some just end with gardner riding off on the horse).

WTF?

What is the point of this story? I don't see a lesson...no bad guys get their
comeuppance. The guy that I thought was going to be the good guy (the gardner)
ends up stealing from the naive student when it suits him. Is the lesson that
it is really every man for himself and so when someone does something bad to
you, go ahead and find someone else you can screw over to fix your situation?

~~~
scrumper
I've always taken them as child-friendly introductions to the idea that life
is sometimes hard, and that bad things can happen to good people. I suspect,
though I don't know, that children of Grimm's era were obliged to play a part
in society far earlier than they are today, making such lessons quite
valuable. (The idea of preserving innocence is relatively new).

------
brudgers
This interpretation of the panopticon and it's effect on behavior is based on
Foucault's _Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison_. The paperback is
reasonably priced. The cost, however, is a trip down the rabbit hole of
postmodernism.

[http://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Punish-The-Birth-
Prison/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Punish-The-Birth-
Prison/dp/0679752552)

~~~
innguest
Yep, there's definitely a high cost to reading that book, it made me see the
world very differently and woke me up to so much. Not in a happy way.

------
tomaskafka
"What makes the gaze of authority special is that the watched voluntarily
simplify and order their own behavior to prepare to act on the desires of the
watcher.

This is the reason authority induces power. Just by looking, it turns what it
sees into a ready and waiting instrument capable of enacting its intentions
within a space of desires. Authoritarian seeing is like a magnetic field
acting on a domain of free agency."

...

"Why? Because authority exercised through direct coercive action is
inefficient to the point of being useless beyond a certain scale. But
authority expressed and exercised through the authoritarian eye is nearly
infinitely scalable. The source of this leverage is of course the fact that
humans (and agents in general), unlike non-sentient matter, can recognize and
respond to being seen."

...

"The condition of a social system that has submitted to authority is a sort of
self-reinforcing, self-perpetuating collective learned helplessness."

[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/03/22/social-dark-matter-
on-s...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/03/22/social-dark-matter-on-seeing-
and-being-seen/)

------
userbinator
_Rather, the hands-off “play” demanded by the elf is limited to finding (but
not touching!) The Elf on the Shelf_

I see a parallel with this and the concept of "black-box abstraction": If this
Elf is an abstraction of surveillance, it's basically saying to the child that
they should unquestioningly accept however it works, and not attempt to
discover what it really is. That's what I think is the really disturbing part
- children are being taught to not think deeply about and "dig into" how the
world around them works, but to internalise the belief that everything "just
works" like magic. I say this as someone who was known for (sometimes
aggressively) disassembling all my toys when I was young. I'd probably give
the Elf the same treatment if it existed back then. :-)

------
milesf
We should have all seen this coming back in 2004, with Travelocity's "roaming
gnome". He was reconnoitring the planet for the elves.

------
carsongross
Future police state... Ha! Crazy talk.

 __glances at nest tstat__

 __glances at dropcam__

Hmmm...

~~~
lstamour
...glances at phone...? ;-)

------
bcoates
_When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as
a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things._

I think the Elf on the Shelf gives exactly the right message about the place
of surveillance in our society.

------
lurchpop
...he knows when you've been bad or good, so if you've done nothing wrong, you
have nothing to worry about.

------
MaysonL
This has been going on for decades, if not centuries or millenia. Google "This
Is a Watchbird Watching YOU"

------
tempodox
The article seriously contains an ad to...

    
    
      Buy the Elf on the Shelf
    

Wow

------
jpatokal
FWIW, Scandinavia has long had a tradition of "tomte" (elves, but not quite)
watching over children before Christmas, so they can report back to Santa
who's naughty and who's nice. As a parent, I find this mildly useful in
keeping my kids on their best behaviour, and not particularly Orwellian.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte)

~~~
veqz
The Tomte (Nisse in Norwegian and Danish) is close to what's called a gnome in
English, and usually lives somewhere on the farm. As long as it is respected,
and offered food for Yule eve/Christmas eve, it will help take care of the
farm. If it is not respected, it will play lots of little or big pranks, like
tipping over a bucket with milk, or opening the barn door to let the animals
run off.

It does NOT spy on children, and frankly, they live in a completely different
universe than the modern Santa.

~~~
jpatokal
Interesting, this must be a Finnish mutation on the theme then, since
_tarkkailijatonttu_ ("watching tomte") are very much a thing in Finland.

