Am I the only one who hates Mardi Gras?

[darkmage64]

âI mean seriously. It's like at some point in time somebody was sitting around thinking how can I mess up peoples day? Then they got the bright idea of having people cover their cars with stupid s*** and drive them very slowly while throwing cheap ass beads to people who have nothing better to do than stand around on a f***ing sidewalk waiting for said cheap ass beads. I had to make a run to town today which normally only takes me about 15 minutes to get up there and another 15 to get back (I live in the country) but today I got to enjoy sitting in traffic for an hour and a half on my way back just so you could catch some f***ing beads. Well, congratulations. I'm so happy for you. You'll wear them for a day before they end up in the garbage or stuck in some drawer some where but at least idiots got to stand around and drool on themselves for a while.

Edited February 18, 2017 by darkmage64

[montky]

@darkmage64

that is an interesting perspective.

we've all been inconvenienced by services, sporting events, parades, celebrations and functions at some time or other.

sometimes, we didn't know those events were being held, even when those events had been to others a tradition for a period of time.

I can relate to that.

It is sad to see the trash left after these events (why can't folks in some locales clean after themselves?), and the 'hallmark-ening' of so many different events.

Your thread title asks a very interesting question, which has a complex answer.

 

Mardi Gras might not be everyone's thing, and depending on the nationstate it's held in, it can unfortunately be

fraught for the people who are holding their parade.

However, we need to reflect on the context of those parades.

In a secular, pluralist society, many other kinds of parades and celebrations or functions

are held.

Mardi Gras is no different.

 

Some remember the service of veterans, others observe their belief's special days as part

of their customs and ways, influential people sometimes have state funerals etc,

some folks have ticker-tape parades for sporting champions and

celebrities have all kinds of events to recognize their works

and where they do no harm, that's their prerogative.

Mardi Gras is no different.

 

It is a celebration for LGBTQIAHO persons, by LGBTQIAHO persons,

which doesn't seek to harm anyone.

They merely want a parade and space for a celebration for what is of value to them.

They pay their taxes, contribute to many facets of society, eat food, breathe, frankly poop and die the same as other people;

it is their ability to do what they'd want.

 

As a society, we allow many other groups to hold all kinds of other

functions, events, ceremonies and celebrations, and parades...

why should we prevent other groups from the opportunity to likewise have a parade?

why are some parades, sporting events, pageants, ceremonies and celebrations

more or less of an inconvenience or more or less valuable than other events?

 

I mean, we don't feel that way about our travel plans being interrupted by a sudden state funeral,

or a sporting event, or oktober-fest, or military service remembrance parade...

and where are our science parades,

volunteers parades, science fiction parades (I detest some 'conventions' and 'nerd-appropriation', in Japan and Korea, there are "Anime Parades" and Science Fiction days) etc?

Parades and celebrations, customs and ways, they are part of our identity and rites of passage.

some are effaced, others are encouraged... that's beyond my comprehension.

Parades of all sorts face being shut-down in a fractured society,

which values insurance and litigation potentials more than it does people and their customs or ways.

Block parties and neighborhood meetings etc? all on the decline.

'folks ain't got time for that' is also a factor...

 

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So, for as long as there is detente, tolerance, pluralism and

a secular society which believes in

freedom, liberty, individuality, pluralism and the ability to express themselves,

and folks genuinely want to seek a J Sacks "dignity of difference"

I think that Mardi Gras is much more preferable to;

the Pulse nightclub massacre 2016,

the Twin Peaks attack 2015,

the beat attack 2011,

the oppression that LGBTQIAHO persons experience in some other nationstates at time of writing,

or, the recent trend to counter-productive 'civil rights movements marches' in USA, Canada, UK and other locales.

Mardi Gras is a great revenue source to the citizenry in many locales where such things are held.

 

I would rather be inconvenienced for 1 hour, 2 hours... a whole day,

which by now I would reasonably be expected to know the date of on the calendar in advance,

than intermittent strike actions and belligerent angry people haranguing innocent bystanders and grinding things to a halt at random.

I'd rather see floats and parades, than see people butchering each other over those things.

good people from all different walks of life, lose so much when these things are vied over.

a parade or celebration is of itself not as much an imposition.