Jun 16, 2010

 Well, we are home from the frickin' fun park (FFP).  Got in about nine tonight and I'm waiting for the washer to finish, so I thought I would post something.
In case you didn't know, places of great public gathering across the fruited plain are being overrun by people like this woman, riding conveyances like this.  Especially, the FFP.

Four the past 4 1/2 days I have been  annoyed by the legion of heavyweights tooling around the FFP, because in my judgment, they are too lazy to hoof it like the rest of us.

Merle Wayne, as you can see, has a bad attitude about people who have spent a lifetime making horrible lifestyle choices, riding around on scooters and expecting me to get out of their way.

Of course, not all scooter users are just plain fat.  Some have legitimate health problems.  And by legitimate, I mean problems they didn't cause through the ingestion of everything that got in front of them.

I'm reading this book called, Justice: What Is The Right Thing To Do?  The author invites readers to look at our reasons for making judgments about things and to see if they really stand the test of fairness or justice, to say it his way.

Introspection, I hate it.

Anyway, I got to thinking about my bias toward fat people on scooters and what it comes down to for me is good the old Protestant work ethic.  The one that infects most Americans, even Americans who are not Protestants, like me.

We have been bred to crave fairness and if someone has something we don't have, it is no damn fair.   This is one of the reasons we hate the rich.

So, at the core of my annoyance is my particular notion of fairness.   Why should people who got fat get special treatment?

From a libertarian point of view, if these people are paying the FFP to ride these things and my tax money isn't going to pay for it, then I really have no right to complain.

From a practical point of view, if it makes them happier and doesn't really put me out,  I have no complaint there either.

Or as my mother might have said, "What's it to you?"

So what is my legit complaint?   My version of "fairness" turns out to be more of my pettiness.

 I guess I'm wrong again.   There, I said it.










Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

9 comments:

Steve Reed said...

Well, you could argue that they DO put you out by getting in your way...but I guess that might be kind of petty.

Part of the Protestant Work Ethic is an intolerance of laziness -- and rightly or wrongly, the perception of many very overweight people is that they're lazy. (Not always true, but that's how people often perceive them.)

I often think the same thing you do when I see someone in one of these scooters -- that they'd be much better off if they'd just walk. Unfortunately, years in an overweight body can demolish the joints and make walking impossible. Kind of a Catch-22, or a vicious cycle, or something.

Kurt said...

I'm okay with it as long as they are jolly fat people, but if they're grumpy about it, then it's wrong.

The Bug said...

Hey - that might be me one day if I don't get my act together! I didn't get arthritis when I was overweight, but being overweight doesn't help. I'm working on it.

What annoys me most when I'm out in public is STROLLERS! They clog up the works & act as a sort of battering ram to get through crowds. I don't like being battered. Not that I'd want to have to carry a child around either - & not that I expect parents to put their lives on hold just because they have a small one. But...

Anonymous said...

Everybody hates fat people. Even fat people. Its the easiest prejudice to have. You don't have to work at it, either.

And how dare they get in your way!

Katy said...

I just found your blog through Bug's Eye View. Having just returned from a certian theme park resort myself, I can't help but shout Amen! to this post.

I get that I am also being petty and judgemental, but many of these scooter people were just plan rude to those of us who actually walk.
Also, I talked to more than one of these people who actually wanted us to feel sorry for them because *gasp* they have bad knees. Really? Your knees have trouble supporting 400 pounds of fat? Its like they bring these health problems on themselves and then look for special treatment. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Barbara said...

I admit to having a low tolerance for people who are fat simply because they can never say NO to food. The electric carts around here seem to be rapidly multiplying, to the point where we will soon be playing bumper cars in Costco or fearing for our lives if we are not riding one.

People have offered me a cart when they see my gimpy gait, but so far I have found it better for my body just to walk.

I need to work on a lot of tolerances, this one in particular.

Anonymous said...

My most memorable scooter dude is a guy who rolls into our local food market everyday to buy cake at the instore bakery. . (I've only witnessed his kind of extreme excitement over cake twice, but employees talk about how he is there every morning for his fix, and how unhealthy his habit is- he's killing himself - but they can't refuse him cake either.)

Bella Rum said...

I used to try to get Dad to use the scooters at Sam's Club when he was in his late eighties - when his knees were pretty much bone rubbing on bone. He refused. Said they were for people who needed them.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

today on jeopardy one of the contestants stated that he lost 300 pounds!!!

this factoid doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but i thought it was interesting....