I remember when I was in the eighth grade; I had one of those de facto worst days of my life. I had homework in just about every single class that day, it was rainy and I forgot an umbrella, and at the time, I was a walker to and from school. My backpack couldn’t contain anymore text books and weighed a million pounds, and I had to relegate to stuffing things into my trumpet case by the way I was in the band back then and had a huge cumbersome trumpet case to lug around too. I walked home in the rain, furiously upset and discouraged, lugging about 20 lbs. of extra weight, and when I got home, I changed into dry clothing, and sprawled out on my back on the carpet and closed my eyes.
Nowadays, if an eighth grader were in a similar predicament, a parent would complain to the school board to reduce homework, or the necessity of textbooks outright, and in today’s economy, would ultimately go through. If the parents didn’t pick up the child in their Toyota Sienna with the button-touch automatic opening and closing doors, the child would still be forced to walk home, but instead of carrying a backpack, they would undoubtedly be dragging a rolling bag on wheels.
The other day, I was running a little behind, and when I arrived to my parking lot, I walked a little faster to get into the office quicker. As I got to the bridge, I approached a person who was dragging their briefcase on wheels, and was walking at just enough of a pace to prevent me from getting around them, with the assist going to their ballast, which consumed just enough surface area for another person, from preventing me from acquiring an optimal line to get around them. A briefcase, with wheels on it.
Luggage, I understand. You’re typically lugging around days’ worth of clothing and personal effects, and can weigh anywhere from 30-50 lbs. (unless you want to pay more) But textbooks and laptops? I don’t need to bring a bag to work with me in the first place, I do, because it makes me look more professional and important, and I like to read during my solo lunches, but in the end, I don’t really need to have one at all in the first place.
If the premise of evolution is the reinforcement of behaviors until it begins to alter the species genetically, through a long period of time, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that humanity is on the fast track to becoming a society of weak pussies?
In spite of the aforementioned worst day of my life #472, I do not have back problems at the age of 29. Maybe it’s too early for such to come to fruition, but at the same time, I’ve seen plenty of people by my ages, whom are practically crippled in their physical shortcomings. However, those are typically people who aren’t physically ambitious, and are resigned to let nature do what it pleases with their bodies. I’m by no means a physical specimen, but I am fairly active, and put nominal effort into keeping up with physical fitness.
I understand that in our weakening society, parents wish to prevent back troubles by having their kids drag Sisyphus’s boulder on wheels, instead of carrying it. The intention is good and the premise is logical, but at the same time, such relegation is the kind of actions that weaken people for the future. It’s bad enough, and dorky enough that such habits are reinforced and nurtured to the point where they grow up to be the pansies in the corporate world who don’t carry laptop bags and briefcases, in favor of their wheeled counterparts.
You know who else spend their lives dragging shit? Slaves. But they didn’t have convenient wheels, so it only made them stronger, which kind of makes this point moot, but my original point remains: wheeled bags and briefcases are turning society into bigger pussies than many already are.
