Maybe I've fallen into a golden age fallacy, but I remember our society being a lot more relaxed about regulating how people should live.
It's easy and often enjoyable to sit back and judge how other people live their lives, but taking steps to ensure that people are living the lives you feel that they should, just sticks in my craw.
When I was a child I remember doing arts and crafts in school to decorate for Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas -- all of the those “Hallmark Holidays,” really. I remember neighbourhoods decked out with decorations and festive people gearing up for the latest consumer-spending spree. It seems like such a shame that we've done our very best as a society to ensure those traditions have all but disappeared in the interest of political correctness.
Another Halloween has come and gone, and I was taken aback this year at how many stories I saw in the news about so-called concerned citizens raining on other people's parades.
One lady in Markham, Ont. saw Home Depot's “scary peeper creeper” decoration, decided that since voyeurism is illegal in Canada it shouldn't be sold to anyone, and went tattling to the CBC to champion her cause. If a Halloween decoration offends you, don't buy it. Why should that mean that no one should be able to purchase the product because it doesn't appeal to your particular brand of humour? Let your wallet do the talking – not the CBC.
Another prime example of what I mean is the University of Ottawa who went on record saying an annual pub crawl organized by the students' association was “disgraceful” because it incorporated a point system with teams whereby players would perform adult, sometimes sexual, tasks in exchange for earning those points for their team. It has now been cancelled going forward due to backlash and widespread criticism.
These students are adults who should be able to sign up for that type of pub crawl if that is their choice. If it isn't your idea of a good time, sign up for a different one or do something else. Provided it is made clear what participants are signing up for, they should be able to make the choice to take part. Why shouldn't they be allowed to have the pub crawl if there is interest and people who want to organize it?
Of course we should be trying to ensure that people in our society feel safe and respected, but why should that mean we have to course-correct so radically?
There would be a lot less animosity if everyone were to just live and let live, and not try to save others from themselves. The bogeyman, of course, is only a myth.
Darlana Robertson is a twentysomething writer from Calgary and a former Central Alberta resident.
