So... ya think I'm just a misanthrope crank, eh? You think I'm just cynical and grumpy?
Get this...
Some genuis(es) decided it would be lark to take a Pasadena RALPHS shopping cart and raise it up the supermarket's flagpole (don't ask me how)... well, apparently when one of the store's employees went out to take down the flag (which they quite reasonably could have assumed was still up on the flagpole), the shopping cart fell and hit them going full force breaking their neck. The employee is now paralyzed from the neck down. For life. Forever.
I swear, if you took some of the stories like this one (which seem to happen every day... at least in Los Angeles) and strung them into a "MAD MAX" style post-apocolyptic movie and went back in time and showed it to people in the 1930's or 40's, they'd say "Well, that's compelling science fiction, but America will NEVER become that barbaric!"
Welcome to Thunderdome, folks!
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3 comments:
Wow. How sad. This is one of those stories that is just too hard to believe and, yet, they happen.
Personally, I don't think the employee was necessarily aware that a cart was suspended at the top of the flagpole however-many-feet above his head. Chances are, he has a routine wherein he just trudges along, not really looking at much of anything and starts pulling on the rope, just as he does everyday. I'm fairly certain that he didn't exactly have any distinct notification that a cart was plummeting down towards him. Otherwise he probably would've moved. Either way, I think it's pretty insensitive to imply that whomever is paralyzed from the neck down was some kind of moron who failed to see his impending doom before him.
I think it's also fairly apparent that the assholes who did this knew no good could come of it. It's completely tragic and while I know there have been assholes throughout history; n'er do well kids who wind up doing more harm than they might have anticipated doing, but who intended to do harm nonetheless, I think it's pretty safe to say that we are indeed far more 'barbaric' and far more riddled with violence than eras past. Take a look at the number of school shootings among children, how many more children are doing unspeakable things at even younger ages. Kids are far scarier today than they were many moons ago. This is not to say that this horrendous cart incident is necessarily the handiwork of a minor, but for the sake of argument and my point, I'm going to make that assumption because chances are, I'm right. Kids these days are fucking assholes, and while I know each subsequent generation says the same fucking thing about those that follow them, even my grandmother has commented about how frightening it must be to be a parent these days that there are so many more horrendous things kids seem to either be doing themselves or become the victims of.
People used to leave their front doors unlocked. People used to be able to walk to school. People used to be far safer than they are now precisely because people are becoming more barbaric/violent.
I'm also fairly confident that while quite a few Los Angelenos may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, I'd be hard-pressed to say they're the "...dumbest bricks in the nation."
And on top of that, people of this generation don't have the same 'excuse' as those of past generations... people have better access to education and information than they ever have before... whoever did this wasn't some shitkickin' hilbilly who jest di'nt know no better... this was in Pasadena - a yuppie stronghold if there ever was one.
As technology makes our lives more cushy and government cradles us closer and closer to its bosom and as society continues to tell us that nothing we do wrong is really our fault, we seem to be evolving in every way except in intellect - and that's just breeding a lot of tech-savvy barbarians.
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