WARNING - I HAVE BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH THAT MOST OF YOU SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH MY SENSE OF HUMOR (OR LACK OF). IF YOU DO NOT APPRECIATE MY SENSE OF HUMOR (OR LACK OF) OR IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE OVERLY SENSITIVE TYPES, DO NOT READ THIS. YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
An incident with one of my employees yesterday, the details of which aren't important to this, TONGUE IN CHEEK post, led me to think a lot about, well, stupid people.
To be sure, the world needs people to flip burgers at McDonalds. The world needs hotel housekeepers. We need someone to wash the dishes and bus the table at our favorite restaurant. And, heaven knows, nursing homes need CNA's. There are people who, for whatever reason, are less motivated or less capable than the average person. These people have value to our society. We need them, and I, for one, am grateful for their contribution. But along with our gratitude, along with our recognition of their value and our appreciation of their efforts, comes an awesome responsibility.
Yes basketball fans, we have a responsibility to look out for the best interests of and to do the right thing for, the stupid people of the world. Not meaning to imply, for a minute, that all burger flippers, housekeepers, dish washers and CNA's are stupid, but surely one can't argue with the insinuation that many of them are.
The whole idea of the responsible breeding of dogs strikes me as a good one. There are more dogs in this world than there are good homes for. Anything we can do to mitigate that has to be good. Furthermore, the consensus of opinion here seems to be that even if we only bred quality dogs, there would still be enough dogs, from the resulting litters, that weren't "show" quality, to satisfy those people who are only interested in a pet. Again, this makes sense to me.
On the forum formerly known as "I Dog," I learned that, prior to breeding a dog, there are a number of hurdles that one needs to jump if he wants to be a responsible breeder. Conformation shows help to determine, for example, if the dog in question is a superior representative of his breed. One should do health testing on the dog prior to considering him for breeding. One should study the pedigree of his dog and, to the best that he is capable, gather as much information as possible about his dog's close relatives to see if there are any genetic defects in the line. The dog is also expected to have certain characteristics and temperament.
We have three horses, all of which have been gelded, for a couple of reasons. First, stallions are a pain in the butt to manage and, our horses do not have good conformation. They are not superior or even good representatives of their breed and are thus not worthy of being bred.
I have to wonder, why not apply responsible breeding criteria to people? If it makes sense to do this for dogs and horses, why not, I ask, for people too? Are there not more than enough people in this world? Why not have conformation, health, genetic and other standards to determine if people are worthy of breeding? If we bred people only from quality breeding pairs, wouldn't we, logically, end up with enough people who weren't up to the "standard" for us to get the dishes washed at a restaurant and our butts wiped if we end up in a nursing home? In short, should stupid people be allowed to breed?
Next week's column, if Joel continues to be AWOL, will be "Ugly People." This will be followed, the next week, by, "Fat Women Who Dress Like They Aren't."