License to Breed

I read a review of the new Rob Zombie Halloween movie that's out today and the reviewer said that the scariest thing he saw wasn't the movie itself, it was coming out and seeing a stroller by the door. He waited and saw some young parents with their three kids, the oldest being five, leaving the theater.

Now, the argument that will come up will be of the License to Breed variety, but I'd like to counter that with a Village of Loud Shaming argument that I just made up. Here's the idea. Rather than silently bemoan the wrongs of the world and write about them on your blog or make anonymous comments online or later tell your friends about it, take a stand right there and speak your mind. Tell someone who's doing the wrong that you disagree with them and next time you shouldn't do it.

Yes, that's hard and confrontational. But it's time we start not letting the socially retarded run the world any more. This goes for parents bringing their babies to horror movies and people suing restaurants for hot coffee spills all the way up to Presidents making unpopular choices. We have to stop being cows and take back our lives.

If you're taking your baby to a Rob Zombie movie, you really deserved to be shouted out of the theater. I don't care if you can't find a babysitter. If you can't, you don't go to the movies. You have to assume the responsibility that comes with being a parent. If you don't, and legally you can't lose your kids, well then socially we should be able to point fingers and belittle you until you are shamed into never doing it again. Can you imagine the effect that would have? No protracted legal battles, no waiting for a governmental mandate, just pure unadulterated mob rule. You bring a baby to a slasher flic and 150 people stand up and say, "Bad parent! Go see a cartoon! Get out of here. How could you treat your baby like that. Of all the nerve, are you daft? What kind of caregiver are you?" You think they'll ever do that again? Then, when the person sues the theater, the attorneys need to have the cahones to stand up and say, "No, this is stupid. You brought a baby to a horror movie, you should reported to CPS as it is. I won't take this case." And then when a lawyer DOES take the case - because one always will - the judge needs to slap that shit down with the condemnation of a thousand granite gavels.

Common sense needs to rule again. Simple sociality should not be left to the lowest common denominator. We need to rise up as a people and say, "We are not cattle!" Especially Americans. We do what we're told and we file lawsuits when we don't get our way. Convenience is king to us and we let it run our lives to ruin.

I'm not trying to be barbaric, I'm actually trying to be civil. I'm all for seeing to the welfare of our elderly and sick. Through no choice of their own they have been reduced and it's the mark of a good civilization that sees to the least of its civilians.

But not the stupid. And I don't mean low IQ, I mean irresponsible and insensitive.

I'm tired of paying the price for other people's stupidity. My insurance shouldn't be high because some jackhole got wasted and wrapped his penis-mobile around a light pole. Movie tickets shouldn't have to go up to cover litigation costs. Food prices shouldn't have to go up to cover legal fees because someone didn't cook their chicken properly.

I want to be nice and harmonious but at the same time I feel like looking around and saying, "You know what? No. You're a jackass. Think before you do something that dumb again." We need to understand that we live together and we will improve as a people when we can move forward together. Imagine the scenario of a friend at a party talking with a group of people and this person says they are thinking of getting back together with a crazy ex girlfriend. Think of the interventions people have with loved ones about booze and drugs. Those are the kinds of actions we should take. Band together as people, not white or Jewish or Christian or poor or famous or Malaysian or any qualifier, but as humans.

I feel like I'm talking to a 6 year old. We're smarter than this. You spill hot coffee on your nuts, suck it up and move on. You won't do it again, will you? Good for you, you've learned a lesson. Be an advanced mammal and look at the big picture. Use your gray matter and thumbs and stop being such a victim.

Maybe we should make a list of Common Sense Commandments. No religion here, just basic human interactions. Not a blind faith in untested absolutes, but a genuine belief through practice that humanity can rise above everything and interact on a base level so primitive that it transcends all other ideologies. Simple is better.

Wow. Sorry, went on there a bit.

Carry on.