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Title: "We're Germs, Kid. We're Going to Kill You."
Source:
The Bob Circus. 3.0
URL Source: http://home.att.net/~bob.wallace/index3.html
Published: Jul 9, 2006
Author: Bob Wallace
Post Date: 2006-07-09 09:02:39 by YertleTurtle
Keywords: None
Views: 166
Comments: 20
One of my friends and I occasionally discuss our perceptions this is not the same country we grew up in. And it's not like we're old fogies; we're not old, or fogies, whatever a fogie is. But it doesn't seem to be that much fun for kids today, compared to when we were out wreaking havoc. We don't see the kids doing the things we used to do -- dirtclod or snowball fights, King-of-the-Hill, wrestling with each other, racing downhill on bikes as fast as possible. A lot of them appear to be inside, addicted to video games. I'm sure that's not such a good thing. Most of the things we did as kids were risky, but risk had a lot to do with making it fun. It was a controlled (and at that age, a mostly mild) risk, but it was still a risk. Here's an example: when I was a kid, there were no such things as bike helmets. Do I see helmets as a bad thing? Mostly I don't, but in some ways, I do. I've never known a kid to hurt his brains by not wearing a helmet. I'm sure it's happened, very rarely, but is it worth it when you can't get on your bike without worrying, "I have to put my helmet on so I'll be a vanishing fraction safer!" Here's another, more interesting example from when I wasn't a kid, but about 21: my car starting spinning on the highway after I hit an unseen patch of black ice hidden by the night. I spun around, went off the road and rolled a few times, and came to rest with the car on its side. I remember the motor was still running and the headlights still on. I wasn't afraid the entire time, even though I could have gotten killed, just in a state of disbelief. In that state everything dropped into slow-motion, and my perception grew very acute. After the car was lying on its side, I opened the door like a tank hatch, got out, and went "Woo hoo!" Everything was very bright and clear and intense. In a way, it was one of the most fun things that ever happened to me. The thrill was beyond description, and from that accident I learned why guys jump out of airplanes and engage in other extreme risk taking. It's some of the most fun play there is. Is life supposed to be about being safe and bored all the time? Always feeling anxious and thinking, well, I'd better worry about doing this irrelevant thing, or that meaningless thing, so I'll be just a teeny-tiny bit safer? As compared to never giving it a thought? Which is more fun? Thinking the whole world is out to get you, or thinking it's a place where you can have a lot of fun? I still drive all the time, and never worry about getting into an accident. The problem, really, is thinking the whole world is an unsafe place, out to get you. I am reminded of cartoonist Gahan Wilson's Nuts book about young kids. One of the cartoons in particular sticks in my mind: a little boy, in bed with the sheets pulled up below his chin and a look of terror on his face. Why? Because many little oozy monsters are crawling up his sheets, grinning at him as they tell him, "We're germs, kid. We're going to kill you." When I was a teenager we rode horses and mini-bikes, swam in lakes, sailed our goofy Sea Snark styrofoam sailboat, jumped off of cliffs into rivers. Nothing bad happened, no one drowned, or even came close. The most unusual thing we did is inflate one of those inner-tubes off of an 18-wheeler, then six or seven of us would stand on it in the middle of the lake and rock it back and forth until it upended. Only once was I was on the low end, and had every one fall on top of me. I remember I was so far down under the surface people were kicking me in the head. When I surfaced, everyone had concerned looks on their faces, because it took so long for me to come up. But I wasn't in danger, even that far down. Not once as a teenager do I remember thinking, "Maybe I shouldn't swim in this lake. . .I could drown. . .maybe I shouldn't ride this mini-bike. . .I could fall off and cut my knee." The latter I do did; even today I have a three-stitch scar on my left knee. So what? Scars are permanent souvenirs. What would life be like if all the fun and excitement and risk and adventure was sucked right out of it, in the name of safety? Would it be worth living, if the abililty to play was eradicated? And doesn't play always involve some risk? All animals play, not only when young but when adult. In their case, it always involves teeth and claws. Would they ever stop playing because of the possibility of a scratch? You already know the answer: no. One image I often have is that I'm looking at an attempt to return us to the womb. That's even more regressive than being a swaddled baby in a crib. There is no fun or adventure or excitement or risk in the womb. There's also no intelligence either. It sounds like an attempt to return us to the Garden of Eden, and contrary to the conventional wisdom, I would find it a heck of a boring place. Here's what I wonder: is the desire for play and excitement and adventure in any way related to intelligence, the desire to learn, the desire to explore, to invent? Are they the natural outcomes of freedom and liberty? Seems so to me. And if you take away risk and fun and adventure, what happens to those good qualities of exploration and innovation? I think they go away, for the most part. After, hasn't it been the free countries that have produced just about everything in the world? Who's behind this attempt to make the world out of Nerf? Politically, it's liberals. But what's liberalism? Isn't it just Mommy by another name? And don't Mommies want to make the world all safe 'n' snug, even though they don't understand they're taking all the fun out of everything? And maybe removing our brains, too? It's not Daddies who're trying to rid the world of BB guns, and attempting to put little boys on Ritalin because they're acting like little boys and not little girls. It's Mommies who are trying this. And, to his everlasting shame, Daddies are letting Mommies do this. Fred Reed has the perfect comment about this kind of Mommy: "censorious, moralizing, self-pitying, endlessly instructive, and so achingly tedious that men find themselves thinking of moldy bath sponges." Maybe those boys on Ritalin just need to go outside and have some rough-and-tumble play for a few hours instead of being forced to sit motionless at desks, which little girls can do far more easily than little boys. Another image I have is that of Star Trek's the Borg. The components of the Borg are completely safe womb-to-tomb, always taken care of -- and they have no excitement, no adventure, no fun, and no consciousness or intelligence. And it's completely in character that the Borg Cube (which is just a huge womb flying through space) is ruled by a Queen, one who is motherly and concerned for the welfare of her little worker drones. To me, her most frightening and eye-opening saying was when she commented: "Why do you resist us? We only wish to improve the quality of your lives." The welfare state is Mommy. And the bigger her welfare state, the more play will decline and with it our intelligence, and along with it will go innovation, and fun, and excitement, and adventure. What a life, if you can call it a life. People will go from playing chess to checkers, then finally have problems with "Go Fish." Does play, even if it involves risk, actually stimulate our brains? Does it serve a deeper, more profound function than simple recreation? Is it necessary throughout our lives, especially as a baby and a teenager? Are all societies damaged when Mommy takes over, because our brains go plop right out of our heads? Myself, I think so.
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#1. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
Thanks for this article…most enjoyable – and true. As a kid, I remember riding
my bike to a bridge in Brooklyn, climbing on the girders and fishing for
hours. The drop to the East river was 200’ if it was an inch. If I forgot my
lunch, there was a group of black guys who I had gotten to know who’d share
their food with
me.
A 200 foot drop? What did your parents think about that? If my parents, especially my mom, knew the things I did, she would have had a heart attack.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted." -- Gore Vidal
I grew up in the same relatively rural area I live in now. I did most of the unsafe things Wallace mentioned, plus a few more he didn't. I still haven't gotten used to kids wearing helmets on bicycles. If any of us had tried that growing up, the rest of us would have ridiculed the helmet wearer with every effeminate epithet in our vocabulary. Out in the country, the redneck kids still take lots of risks. Last words of Bubba: "Hold muh beer and watch this." Kids usually aren't holding beers before their death-defying stunts, but it's otherwise the same.
My mother never knew what I was doing and my father was never around. It's funny, I wouldn't do it now but kids have no fear. At least they didn't :)
I can't get used to that, either. I remember one time my cousin and I were hurtling down a very long hill on our bikes. We got up a lot of speed. One nitwit pulled his car out in front of us, I couldn't make it around the back of the car, and fell off of the bike. I did a lot of rolling before I came to a stop. Yet, there wasn't a scratch on me. And this was without a helmet. I can't remember the last time I saw a dirt-clod fight (my friend called him "dirt-balls"). I do sometimes wonder if there's something wrong with kids today.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted." -- Gore Vidal
Did anyone here play dodgeball??? I mean serious dodgeball? Man, give a pack
of 12 y/o's a ball and a wall and we had our own firing squad. Now, that was
fun, especially nailing the sob you hated :)
thought provoking, YT..i never thought about correlating play (freedom and liberty) with intelligence, but you've got something there. the whole plan is control, control, control.
we did! and a game called 4 square, which was really fun, in the street in front of our houses.
Dogeball was the only "sport" I was ever good at. I loved it, and I destroyed everyone I went up against. God, I wish there were leagues for adults.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted." -- Gore Vidal
It's not liberals, it's lawyers. We live in a litigation society. People fear being sued.
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
It makes sense to me. All babies and children want to do is play, which is how they learn. Teenagers are the same way, although it involves some risk-taking. Why do we start kids in school at five? Why are they in at all? Does it really take 12 years to learn everything we need? I suspect if we allowed kids to play all through their childhood, we'd have far fewer drug problems. Lets put it this way: I was hanging out in bars when I was 15. By the time I got to college it was old hat. Yet the kids I went to college with, most of whom were from Chicago suuburbs, were going nuts staggering around drunk, puking everywhere. I couldn't figure out why they were acting like that, until I realized they were doing at 21 what I did at 15. Although I never did the staggering around puking everywhere. They weren't allowed to play in those hideous Chicago suburbs they way I did in the country.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted." -- Gore Vidal
That happened to a black guy who was traveling at a high rate of speed on a side street in Chicago. He hit a parked car and flew out of the car. His brains were lying next to his skull. Ooops!
"To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." E.E. Cummings
So do our insolent and disobedient public servants. SUE THEM at every opportunity. It's the only way to keep them in line. (The next best thing is to simply shoot the fuckers and be done with it. I prefer a good hanging as an alternative.) Just learn enough about the law so that you don't need to hire a scum bag shyster to do the work for you.
"To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." E.E. Cummings
there's an article in my local paper about a Pa. woman who got fined because she didn't have a 4 foot high fence around her child's inflatable pool. That's how bad things are becoming.
I just found the article online. Saf et y regulations may take the air out of inflatable pools
Wasn't it fun :) I spent many a summer in PS 207 "summer camp" trying to maim and otherwise permanently injury youngins my own age. Kinda Darwinian, when I think back.
These municipal ordinances only apply to members of the corporation or employees of the township or residents or citizens thereof. She is likely none of those, unless she claims to be. They can't regulate your private property. It's that simple.
"To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight; and never stop fighting." E.E. Cummings
In New England; the damned ADULTS wear bicycle helmets.
Adults wear them everywhere, and to tell you the truth, I have a problem with adults riding bikes. Usually it's in the street. Even as kids we had enough sense not to ride our bikes in the street.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted." -- Gore Vidal
My wife and I will go bike-riding on abandoned railroad beds like the Virginia Creeper trail just to get some exercise, but ride them on the highway or in the street??? Not a frcikin' chance...no death wishes here! Most people that bike on highways or streets are usually self-absorbed pr*cks that expect cars to yield to THEM every time they blow their nose. Can't stand those people...
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
#3. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
#4. To: YertleTurtle (#2)
#5. To: Sam Houston (#3)
I still haven't gotten used to kids wearing helmets on bicycles.
#6. To: YertleTurtle, all (#5)
#7. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
The welfare state is Mommy. And the bigger her welfare state, the more play will decline and with it our intelligence, and along with it will go innovation, and fun, and excitement, and adventure. What a life, if you can call it a life. People will go from playing chess to checkers, then finally have problems with "Go Fish."
#8. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
#9. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
Did anyone here play dodgeball???
#10. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
#11. To: christine (#7)
thought provoking, YT..i never thought about correlating play (freedom and liberty) with intelligence, but you've got something there. the whole plan is control, control, control.
#12. To: YertleTurtle, Jethro Tull, Sam Houston (#0)
Are all societies damaged when Mommy takes over, because our brains go plop right out of our heads?
#13. To: peteatomic (#10)
it's lawyers. We live in a litigation society. People fear being sued.
#14. To: christine, all (#7)
#15. To: All (#14)
#16. To: YertleTurtle, christine (#9)
#17. To: Grumble Jones (#15)
That was before a code enforcement officer for Salisbury Township told her that she would have to put up a four-foot fence around the pool, which could raise the cost of the $24.99 pool by hundreds of dollars.
#18. To: Sam Houston (#3)
I still haven't gotten used to kids wearing helmets on bicycles.
#19. To: who knows what evil (#18)
In New England; the damned ADULTS wear bicycle helmets.
#20. To: YertleTurtle (#19)
Adults wear them everywhere, and to tell you the truth, I have a problem with adults riding bikes.
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