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The Ethics Of Halloween
Authored by Caleb McMillan via the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,
Every Halloween people are engaging in free-market anarchism whether they like it or not. To the economist, it’s clear that the child values receiving candy, even if it means dressing up in a funny or scary costume and going door-to-door, sometimes for hours, saying “trick or treat”. It’s clear that for the adults, joining in for the festive evening is valued more-so than the monetary value of the candy, or else they wouldn’t be giving it away. And some don’t. Some people, adults and children alike, shy away from Halloween night neither tricking nor treating nor allowing their homes to be used as candy repositories. Those partaking in the activity simply go about their business, ignoring the houses with the lights off. Halloween isn’t like most other market activities where exchanges can be marked in monetary value. Yet an exchange is taking place, and no aggression is required for participation or non-participation.
To the free-market anarchist, Halloween is a perfect example of a non-coercive display of voluntary goodwill. Critics of anarchism typically showcase the Hobbesian idea that without a coercive monopoly, people would rob, rape and kill one another. Yet, what is Halloween if not free-market anarchism? There is no central bureaucracy dictating what kids should dress up as, where they should go or at what time and for how long. Likewise, there are no bureaucrats telling adults what types of candy they should offer (“the Davidson’s are giving away Kit-Kats, so the Gibbons’ should offer M&Ms”).
Every Halloween any person giving away candy is an entrepreneur; the individual must decide how much candy to stock up on and how much to give away to each child. These decisions may be influenced by past experiences and future uncertainties. A neighbourhood with fewer children may warrant fewer candies, or a larger supply of individual candy units to each child. It can even be explained by marginal utility: If the supply of candy at the Davidson’s house is fixed at x, then the marginal utility of each candy unit will rise as more kids arrive and the supply dwindles. Likewise, if fewer children are visiting, the utility of each candy unit will fall, allowing the Davidson’s to give two or more units of candy away to just one child. This, of course, assumes the Davidson’s don’t want the candy for themselves. Fewer children and a large stock of candy may rest higher on their value scales than vanquishing their supply of Halloween candy by the end of night.
Halloween mirrors the principles inherent in free-market anarchism through its spontaneity. There is no fixed time when to start or stop, but clearly there are limits to when one can or can’t trick or treat. There are no candy cops, testing candy or pre-approving adults who are giving away candy. There are no licences or regulations involved with Halloween. And yet, despite some fear-mongering, the candy given away by strangers to be consumed by children is poison-free.
A dedicated Hobbesian will denounce a stateless society as unrealistic and at odds with human nature. Yet what is more unrealistic than children dressing up in costumes, visiting stranger’s doorsteps, getting free candy, and then consuming that candy without it being laced with poison. Not to mention that the ritual happens every year, without any central authority forcing it on people, without any detailed plan on who will supply candy, what types of candy, how much per household, how many kids per street at a certain time, etc, etc.
It’s clear to me that Halloween is nothing short than free-market anarchism at its best. Here is a spontaneous order of people partaking in a festive holiday without any expectation of monetary gain. Not that wealth is something to be shunned, I’m merely just pointing out that money doesn’t always buy happiness. With that said, I ask again: what is Halloween if not free-market anarchism at its best?
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By clicking on the article, I thought I was promised a bigger picture. <sigh>
yeah, the trick was unethical... where's the treat?!
:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHNBr3PZQaE&list=FLb5msS4NzVAUzOhylyJYt1Q...
+1 http://www.mileanhour.com/files/2011/3/halloween-camouflage-920-b-girl-0...
+2 http://i.imgur.com/bwoXv.jpg
I’m always struck by kids who get a lot of candy and think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking kids out there.
For years the house has gone dark on this night as I stood at the window peering through the blinds until the last begger left the area.
This year Ms. Head said Zer0, lets turn the lights on and do it, you're trying to get some stuff thru town council, what harm could it do spending $15 on some mini mars bars.
So at 5pm I went in search of treats but all I could find was $2 candy bars at the local 711 equiv so I bought a shit load of them.
15 kids showed up so now I got $80 worth of Snickers, ButterFinger, Milky Way and 3 Musketeers bars etc. stuffed in my brief case as ms. Zer0 would throw me out the back door if she knew I spent more than a hundred bucks to try and buy favor with the neighbors.
Never fcking again
if i want to read articles ill get a playboy......
FOFOA. Meeting. Doctor. 165 lbs. Sword & Scream! Ceviche. What does it all mean? AN AWESOME Halloween!
http://tinyurl.com/d3yc862
Have not spent a dime...i don't know whats wrong. I dress up in a nice deep dark rain coat w/nothing on to greet them and for some reason they just scream and go away.
Must be a modern Halloween version.
muppet
stealing candy from kids has no relation to paying taxes, if this was the case me putting a bullet in your skull has no relation to murder
How is rebalancing the amount of candies the children got, so they each had more similar amounts, not the same as taxing one person and giving the other person a subsidy?
Absolutely, let's end all oil patch tax breaks and simply let poor kids starve.
???
Non sequitur much?
It would have been more realistic if they'd taken the candy out of the kids bags with almost none and given it to the kids who already had more than enough.
her name is "Candy", by the way
or "Candi" .. with a heart over the i
Of course it is.
Nice Highlander touch there fuu
<bow>
http://hinessight.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451c0aa69e20120a69b8529970c-pi
Google images--> search "slutty nurse halloween"--> ???--> profit.
epic boobs are epic
http://imagecdn.clips4sale.com/accounts026/45418/clip_images/generated_5...
or treat?
I junked you because I can never unsee that.
Shhh, You loved it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VtYe4lZ7I&feature=related
Nope, not gonna fall for it again. Better luck next thread, you farging icehole!
Best place to file internet complaints can be found as a PDF on this page.
www.lemonparty.org
A fellow Canuck business associate showed that to me, so very very wrong...
LOL!
I'm never very sure what kinds of candy, and in what quantity, to give.
federal regulations would be very helpful by providing uniformity and establishing norms for this annual event.
likewise for gifts exchanged at christmas.
the public should be required to conduct its halloween and christmas related activities at government sites such as social security offices, so that Officials could monitor, regulate, and record these gifts.
actually, I just give out toothpaste and tell kids to "be sure to floss" and "listen to your teachers" and "eat your vegetables"
And the children, of course, are obligated by law to declare the net value of their Halloween candy collections on their annual 1040 income tax form, under "miscellaneous income in kind".
REallY. Can we take this off our TAxes??
All of the children in each community should have to place all of the candy that they received into a pile. That pile can then be equally distributed to all of the children.
[/pinko-commie]
The model is Irina Voronina.
She was Playboy Playmate of the month for January 2001.
Hwr twitter page:
http://twitter.com/IrinaVoronina
Ms. Voronina can also be found on LifeClip, a new photo-sharing app for iPhone/Ipad:
http://www.lifeclip.com/01db1f6784b98c2df63d1369a0fce4b0/5091704a9a1205270a007a4f
All Right, here's a youtube slide show featuring Irina Voronina
You guys might enjoy it. sorta Banzai-esque, but without his panache:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO5EfQpLmrM
Images from slideshow:
http://a.yfrog.com/img802/3930/aoho.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img4/8738/ndtz.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img825/1193/z66u.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img826/7034/bg9d.jpg
lots of treats being offered for ZH kids tonight. . .
No kidding, I was hoping for a big pic also.
1. Where is AnAmerican?
2. You didn't eat that.
How much for the Trick?
Have you ever noticed that, given any excuse, half the chicks will dress like hookers?
For which I say thank God or whoever or whatever is bringing out their inner slut.
Slut-o-ween?
I hope that's not a complaint?
The best days used to be when 1~2$ would actually buy you something, I remember going around and collecting bags of coins + candy.... went home usually ended up with like 50$ in quarters.
Now that 50$ wouldn't even get you anything nice, + no one gives$$ anymore , all you get is shit candy - corns, I feel bad for this generation of trick-or-treaters they aren't getting the full experience.
Prior to the Great Society, a Trick or Treater could roam most any street, alley, apartment building corridor or gangway in the City of Chicago with little to no concern for their safety.
We have come a long way since those times.
Where the fuck did you go trick-or-treatin', Greenwich? I was lucky if I got fifty cents.
Of course, I'm probably older than you... I have to pay about $6 now for the quarters I spent as a kid.
yeah, but were yours made of silver?
i don't know about all this but for every
treat there was to be a prayer for a soul
in purgatory; that is what i tell the children
at the door. peace
You must be pretty popular.
By the end of the night, I could often guess which houses gave great treats by decorations, lighting, neighborhood. It was something of an anarchistic sociological experiment in the 'burbs where I grew up. The energy was often charged when there were lots of kids on the streets running from house to house in the dark. Fun!
The terrorist hate us for our free market Halloween. https://mobile.twitter.com/FamilyRotten/media/grid?idx=7
?
Wait a minute...I think I know that nurse!
Does she kiss it and make it all better?
She caused a spontaeneous response in me...
Always works for me;)
We all do. That's Nurse Goodbody.
Are you sure? I thought that was Nurse Greatbody.
Haven't seen a trick-or treater in a decade or more. Gov't and media F.U.D. has destroyed it.
If I turn my monitor upside-down, will she undress?
Not until you email her your credit card number.
OMFG. A winner. Hey Tylers. We know how you can make this wheezer a success!
No, but a beautful blizzard of snow will fall from her skirt.
The little snickers used to be bigger and cost much less. Inflation bitchez.
It's funny you said that. My 10 year old was going through his candy and he pulled out a Kit Kat, his favorite, he said " What the heck? These used to be a lot bigger". Pretty much sums it up.
We give out 2-3 at a time to make up for the smallness. Candy is getting expensive though, there are only two other lights on that I can see on my street. The kids really have to cover some ground to get a bag full. When we were kids the whole neighborhoods were lit up.
We did the same thing. I felt like a cheapskate giving the kids two of those tiny things, but you're right it is expensive.
The worst part for me is that usually not enough kids come by and I end up eating much of it myself. If some bigger kids show up late I may give them everything I have left so I won't be tempted.
tomorrow go to the grocery store....they will be on sale big time...eat your heart out....and your kidneys..and your blood sugar...but man I love a Kit Kat
In my prime trick or treat years, we lived in an 800 unit apartment complex.
The crappier candies lasted until Christmas.
"there are only two other lights on that I can see on my street."
That's because the adults stole Halloween!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSz4DGdCOUw&feature=related
of course I use the term "adults" loosely...
Homesites here are a minimum of one acre. Kids REALLY have to hike. Most pop in and out of the car, though a few came by on bikes. And then every other house these days is still vacant...
Great night to dress up as a cop and get free donuts.
I usually go as a priest, and sell absolutions.
Seriously, if you want to see how kinky the chicks really are...
hay market candy riots? ;)
How do the Freaknight Fires fit into this anarchist free-market Halloween paradigm?
"Voluntaristic urban renewal".
And by the way, it is called "Devil's Night", and it has already passed, being the night BEFORE Halloween. Only an idiot would waste valuable trick-or-treating time in vandalism and arson --- or waste valuable vandalism and arson time on trick-or-treating, as the case may be.
Only been a few years away from the US and I'm already forgetting the language, but the slackers seem to be coming up short in their volunteering, or at least failing to keep up with the growth of urban stock in need of renewal
oh yes, the days of running the streets like a wild kid. once a year, we would run the streets & it was the most wonderful time. when i was a kid, there were no rules, no beggar's nights, no time limits. we went out for the BIG SCORE ! the FULL-SIZE candy bars, the nickles & quarters & football cards & bubble gum dropped into our bags. & when it was all done, we'd spread it all out on the floor & divide it into gums & chocolates & hard candies & money. you are right, Halloween for kids nowadays is limited & controlled.
and they hand out yogurt, celery and nutrition fact packs
No lie. My kid gets in the car and I says, "Hey, how'd you make out?" She dead-panned, "Somebody gave me a toothbrush."
Ha!
Damet! That does it! Next year the porch light goes on and I'm handing out packs of bubble gum cigarettes.
remember how when you blew through them, a bit of powdered sugar "smoke" came out?
http://www.candywarehouse.com/occasions/old-fashioned-and-nostalgic-cand...
get yer orders in before they pull the interwebs down. . .
Cathartes Aura asked re bubble gum cigarettes:
Indeed I do, and it was great fun. Contrary to the creeping protect-the-cheeldrenism which, if I recall correctly, began to emerge in the mid 1970s, bubble gum cigarettes did not induce me to begin smoking real cigarettes. I might also point out that the lack of availability of bubble gum reefers in the late 1970s did not deter my friends and I from spending our lunch money on weed.
Helloooo nu...umm wtf?!?
Damn you von Mises.
Halloween is still pretty fun around here..the government hasn't tried to screw it up. We have a great turn out and I have to give kuddos to the local government because they do a good job supporting the festivities.
Today blew my mind doc. I live in a good neighborhood. But we had no power. One neighborhood would be totally lit up with kids trick or treating right next to another neighborhood pitch black with no one around. Surreal.
That had to be weird for sure. It's good the had it though...might lift the spirits a bit.
Yeah I hear you. I am alright. A bit stir crazy, but okay. Maybe you can understand this, and probably a lot of other people on here too....but, I have kind of been preparing for this scenario for a long time now. Except I did not think it would be weather related. So to see what I am seeing and confirm that things can in fact deteriorate, is really weird. The idea that 2 weeks from now it will be back to normal and I will be sitting there waiting for the other shoe to drop is just so damn strange....
I was wondering about that. I't's probably a good trial run( as miserable as it may be) to see where you're strengths and your weeknesses are in your preperations. It might help serve to convince the wife that you are indeed sane prepping for events like this.
I am a realist. This opened my eyes. I won't be sticking around when this happens on a prolonged basis. It's all good. I try not to wallow in the misery, I just want to learn as much as I can. There is no escaping the dependancy here. I have to sit back now and figure out what exactly the plan is. This happening was a positive. By the way I hae not seen RSloane post but I did not have her pegged as being anywhere near this mess. Maybe I was wrong...
Full size image for those of you looking for it after the click: http://www.dream-lingere.com/upload/201205/20120528051737533.jpg
That's a stethoscope! If she takes my pulse it will damage her ear drums.
Thank you!
Bullshit article for a bullshit holiday...kids running around in poisonous costumes asking for poisonous candy spontaneously? I call shenanigans. Happy Halloween errbody.
Stop conflating free market activities with anarchy. It is not anarchy.
Had my son go out last Halloween as Obama, but after his 14th razor blade-studded apple and cyanide-laced Pixie Stick, he decided to call it quits.
"I didn't poison that candy --- somebody else did that."
Classic.
lots of rugrats in my neighborhood.. the greediest were 5 little 'cowgirls' that went two fisting into the candy bin.. all of them.. candy flying around on the ground.. hope they alll grow up to marry bankers
Yeah, I had a half-dozen show up in one group. Each one took a handful, and I was shocked at just how much candy the hand of a 5-year old can grip.
They nearly cleaned me out!
Dud needs to get out sometime. Go trick or treating with the little ones and shut-up. You'll live longer.
Halloween is NOT free-market anarchism. If you get robbed while out, the police are called. If your house is robbed, the police are called. You don't call your gang-leader to go "negociate" with the other person's gang-leader.
Freaking anarcho-nonsense.
That was the single most stupid comment I have read on this site since AnAnonymous last posted ---- and even then, you are giving him a real run for his Chinese 'american' US Citizenism money.
LOL. akak, I have seen a lot your retorts to "AnAnonymous". You do always speak the truth on the following matter:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2c9_1328304616&comments=1
Like I always say, the nature of Chinese Citizenismistic roadside crapology is eternal.
Chinese citizenism algebraic coconutism will make that endeavor an assured thing.
That horse runs far faster than any other horse.
Indeed you speak the mattering thing, the crustiest bit of it.
Smithian horse runningism is typcial of US 'american' citizenism economics.
US 'american' middle class consumptionalism runs faster than the Chinese pony, though, so let them run ...
Halloween gives me the freedom to give the ghetto trash that took the bus to my neighborhood since "black people give shit candy" one piece of candy corn, while the kids I know live in my town get at least two kitkats or Reese's Cups. If the kid says "thank you" they get another piece tossed to them.
If I can't stop the ghetto trash from voting ten times in the election, I can make sure part of their trip for Halloween was worthless.
jeez dude, have a wank to your thread eye candy & call it a night. . .
The costume model on the main page is Irina Voronina.
She was Playboy Playmate of the month for January 2001.
Hwr twitter page:
http://twitter.com/IrinaVoronina
Ms. Voronina can also be found on LifeClip, a new photo-sharing app for iPhone/Ipad:
http://www.lifeclip.com/01db1f6784b98c2df63d1369a0fce4b0/5091704a9a1205270a007a4f
All Right, here's a youtube slide show featuring Irina Voronina
You guys might enjoy it. sorta Banzai-esque,
but without his panache, skill or insight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO5EfQpLmrM
Images from slideshow:
http://a.yfrog.com/img802/3930/aoho.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img4/8738/ndtz.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img825/1193/z66u.jpg
http://a.yfrog.com/img826/7034/bg9d.jpg
I take it you are paid by the (multiple) post(s).
Haha, nah.
Been a member here for a year, rarely post.
Just thought if Tyler used Voronina's image without compensation,
He wouldn't mind a little active free market anarchy in the comment section.
She's a good kid, too.
heh, lots of older, unused posters showing up lately. . . wonder what that portends. . .
good retort, though you might reconsider calling the woman pictured a "kid" - y'know, for the avoidance of confusing mental memes. . .
I understand your skepticism, but this topic was a bit frivolous from the start.
I read zerohedge a few times a week. Still don't who is on the buy side of Facebook's 50 million/day volume.
This thread has moved far down the list so this post shouldn't be construed as anything but a confusing mental meme. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD2Y_uc0SWw
This article is wrong. Halloween is not an example of anarchism. The totality of the Halloween events are based on the expectation that if there was a robbery etc., the government would have a reasonably high chance of rectifying the situation.
Halloween.That shit still happening?
Halloween always was and still is one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, it was also an investment lesson for me. It was a harbinger of things to come. I used to save my candy for months, trying to make the joy of having it and eating it last. Eventually I discovered that some of the candy I got didn’t hold its value that well. It turned to crap after about three months and left a bad taste in my mouth. It was usually the shit I got from Blankfein house.
Candy does not store well does it? We could have never hoped to receive the amount of candy that kids do these days. +1 for being a youthful miser.
I remember in my Iowa Neighborhood......a man had a bonfire and you cooked your own hot dogs...another worked for Wonder bakery and he gave out little loaves of bread..really cool....they were 3 inches long......my mom gave out donuts....i think so the leftovers my dad would eat....and the usual candies...
Iowa? Independent thought AND a caucus system? Ha, clearly much more dangerous than Iran.
Mrs. Hornet and I had to go to our kids house to view their kids t or t. so we left a bowl out on the front porch mostly filled with kit kats and snickers. When we got home, the bowl was about as full as when we left, with all three musketeers. Now that's an example of anarcho-capitalism if I ever saw one.
"To the free-market anarchist, Halloween is a perfect example of a non-coercive display of voluntary goodwill."
Voluntary? Halloween candy is extorted by the threat of a 'trick' if the little vigilante doesn't receive his or her 'treat'. Yes, they're only children but they will grow up some day and, a few days after Halloween during even-numbered years, they will go to the polls to vote for a politician who promises to do their trick-or-treating for them - at the expense of taxpayers.
Nurse!? Nurse!?
Miss Irina also appears in this educational film, Piranha 3DD:
http://img.filmous.com/static/photos/104622/8_midi.jpg
Happy Halloween you useless fucking anarchists or anarchist-haters.
Fuck this Halloween shit. Though if it was this Miss Irina I could probably get used to it. As long as she's the one giving the treats, not expecting them.
Since 1968, street protests have been a sacred ritual of France's youth culture. Then a few years ago, a protest was attacked by Arab thugs, stealing stuff but also breaking noses and smashing cell phones just for fun. Next time the white kids held a protest march, they were surrounded by a protective ring of riot police and armored vehicles, and they looked ridiculous.
Same thing happened to Halloween. It used to be a time for juvenile mischief-making, but parents today, who grew up in the 80's watching slasher movies and sensational reports of child abduction, insist on accompanying their kids everywhere. Might as well just stay home.
Halloween is now for weenies. When I was a kid you could fire off as much fireworks as you could carry. Unsupervised , not even
one comment about hurting yourself. Those were the days that natural selection applied. No nanny state all worried about the size
of your Big Gulp or if you were wearing a helmet.
Great piece Caleb McMillan. My first thought upon reading it was"obviously." But then I looked at the comments and thought about most people I know, and I guess not.
You do realize, I'm sure, that Halloween is a Pagan holiday. If it is Pagan, it is "anarchist." We will all get to look at that way very much more closely soon, which is what I think your point was, in a sense. (I think you wrote it as a "should" piece, rather than an "is" piece.)
I'm already doing a lot of that though. Tonight, I didn't feel like doing Halloween at alll. So what did I do? I dressed up as Darth Vader and took 3 gallons of homemade stew and decorations to the local homeless shelter with friends and gave those kids a Halloween. Then I came home and handed out candy, and read this. Turned out to be a damned fine Halloween.
wheres the picture? lol
I always thought of Halloween as a tiny reenactment of the original Hobbesian bargain: create a social contract, or else. Trick or treat. The grownups picked 'treat' 98% of the time. Hence, society reigns. Is it coercion? It is PLAY coercion.
The real crime on Halloween is not explaining it to the kids.
What are you dressed up as tonite Jim ?
Here you can opt out. Just don't go, or don't open.
Try opting out of "social contract". If you don't open the door to the tax collector they will kick this door in and drag you out to a cage.
To me Halloween is a bit like paying my taxes. When I was a child I benefitted from Halloween. Now I am paying into Halloween to keep a thing that I received benefit from going, though I will not benefit from it again, other than a few smiles from seeing cute costumes and smiles.
As the years go by I see fewer folks giving and fewer going out to receive. Also various systems being put into place to keep the children safe from the strangers in their own neighborhoods. Though children have always been safe on that night, the media and urban legends being the scariest things about Halloween.
It almost seems like Christmas is steamrolling over Halloween. The buildup starts before the end of October now. The stress being instilled ever sooner. A bag of candy that requires actual walking around seems not worth it when the riches of Xmas await just round the corner, delivered to you as per order.
Sad. Halloween is so simple and fun by comparison. Grab a bunch of candy, answer the door for a few hours. Dress up and get to walk about with the parents, siblings or friends, seeing all the other costumes. It dies a little more every year. Christmas grows into an ever more gigantic beast. Christmas is scary. It is hard. I like Halloween.
I am surprised that the author does not mention that in North America, Halloween is first and foremost a big business for the candy companies and the made in China decoration business, not a pagan ritual.
. . . always get a smile when I hear of people taking their costumed children to their church for All Hallows Eve trick 'n' treating. . .
But what difference does it make that people voluntarily spend a lot? If they had all the candy hand-made and used up their labor and not thier dollars for preparations, would there be anything chanded from perspective of economy? I guess it would be cooler and less "commercial" but this is esthetics.
Halloween isn't scary anymore, Election Day is scary.
because the Walking Dead are running for office
Made me laugh. 'Americans' have gone blind to one of their major additions to humanity: marketing.
______________________________
Here is a spontaneous order of people partaking in a festive holiday without any expectation of monetary gain.
______________________________
Halloween is as spontaneous as a staged event can be.
In an 'american' country so overwhelmed by Christianity as the US is, here you get a pagan holiday that has been turned in such a commercial feast that 'americans' can not turn down the huge boost to consumption that goes with it.
Piling on marketing effects for decades is probably what 'americans' consider as spontaneous.
Beside a fantastic marketing success, Halloween as celebrated in 'american' countries is another huge display of this other 'american' feature: communaulism ('american' communauty spirit) and the will that inhabit 'americans' to make the wealth circulate among a selective few.
When they are part of the communauty pushing up for that goal, 'americans' usually call that communauty spirit. When they are not part of the communauty, 'americans' call that crony capitalism. Go figure.
'Americanism' is as 'american' does.
New Year's Day is as spontaneous as a staged event can be.
In a 'chinese' country so overwhelmed by materialism as China is, here you get a minor, nominal holiday that has been turned in such a commercial feast that Chinese Citizenism citizens can not turn down the huge boost to consumption that goes with it --- as perfectly symbolized by the burning of "ghost money" for the dead, and at times the burning of real currency in a shocking display of mindless destruction.
Piling on traditional roadside defecatory effects for millenia is probably what Chinese Citizenism citizens consider as socially beneficial and productive --- and as spontaneous as animals.
Beside a fantastic marketing success, Chinese New Year as celebrated in Chinese Citizenism countries is another huge display of this other Chinese Citizenism feature: communaughtyism (Chinese Citizenism public roadside shitting spirit) and the will that inhabit Chinese Citizenism citizens to make the roadside filth circulate among a nonselective many.
When they are part of the communaughty pushing up for that goal, Chinese Citizenism citizens usually call that communaughty spirit. When they are not part of the communaughty, non-Chinese call that unhygienic defecationalism. Go figure.
Chinese Citizenism is as roadside anal sphincterism does.
Halloween used to be fun, when I was little. One year, my sister and I were Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole. We'd haul in some loot, and I don't think my parents ever hovered over us to go door to door. We didn't even care so much about the candy - we just liked dressing up and the whole ritual of the thing. Times past...
I don't like the greedy in kids I see nowdays. I have busser stories from work that would make you all want to smack your head against a wall repeatedly.
Halloween is a nonevent for me now, as it has been the last 12 years. I live on 70 acres in the middle of nowhere, so I don't worry about doling out candy or getting my house egged. I got two big dogs that would deter tricksters, if they had any ambition to even come out here.
Tonight, me and the cook from work sat in the garage and drank beer and smoked cigarettes and talked smart while the dogs slept peacefully nearby.
Happy Halloween, bitchez.
Halloween was fun. My daughter carved a pumpkin just before showtime. We don't get many kids because the lots on my street are large and there are easier pickings nearby in a newer development of smaller upscale family homes. I was amazed that my son and his buddies dressed up and went trick or treating as they are high-school seniors. One of his friends, a Romanian immigrant, put it simply. "Why not? What could be better than seeing the neighbors and getting a ton of free candy?" They are good kids and have enough sense to stay out of trouble and my liquor cabinet. Good for them.
The worst part about it is now Christmas is ON.
The article didn't mention that it is the parents and the people of the community, in general, who voluntarily provide the "policing" of the activities.
That's the same kind of ethical "policing" that would occur spontaneously/voluntarily after a natural disaster or other breakdown of law and order. Yes, Halloween is a shining example of personal responsibility and civic duty. I see no lack of freedom-minded volunteers to help police things once we arrest all the bankster-politicians and put a torch the the U.S. Corporation.
The house = government, the trick-or-treaters = people. People beg the government and get free hand outs while offering nothing but looking silly and dependence on malnourishment.
Halloween is more of consumerism.
You didn't earn that candy...
Someone else made that happen