The End of the World as We Know It

Yeah, big deal, someone left their car running. Who really cares about such things now a days. Except for Global Warming Nazis, parents who pay for gas, or people sensitive to car exhaust stench. The classic rebuttal is 'why I do not care' argument is 'the idiot left his keys in the car to let it idle and it will get stolen as punishment'. Especially in Toronto, the City of Light, where cars are stolen frequently, but reported never by the media (we do not want to give the public the idea that easily profiled groups are easily categorized as a criminal sub species). You see a car idling, no driver, you do not care. Except me, I care. And I care more when I spot four idling vehicles, and all of them Paramedic Supervisors. Today, in Toronto ...

Does leaving your work vehicle idling say something about the worker? This supervisor vehicle (it had SUPERVISOR stenciled on the side) was just there, outside my apartment building. I was off on an errand to fetch milk for the morning porridge. EMS vehicles draw my eye. Was there a crisis? Heart attack? Brain Syphilis drive some queer into a hammer murder spree? Did a baby boomer choke on his granola? Or something more topical: Space Alien flesh eating goo? Nerve gas leak? Laboratory insects that nest in the cranium? I looked around. No panic, nobody fleeing, nothing that said Alien invasion. Oh well. Just an Emergency Supervisor vehicle, parked, empty, idling, keys in the ignition, doors open. Not my problem. Official car; must be on official business.

Does leaving your work vehicle idling become part of corporate culture? I saw a second supervisor vehicle idling another five cars down. This one was parked in the no parking zone that flanks a driveway to one of the apartment buildings just next to mine. Same scenario: same make of vehicle, same stenciled SUPERVISOR lettering. Only the vehicle serial number was different. This one had a cup of coffee in the drivers cup holder. This vehicle was parked, empty, idling, keys in the ignition, doors open. Such a coincidence. Nobody around me (and this was rush hour for the foot traffic at Yonge and Eglinton) seemed much to care. This could be the set up for a horror movie ... was something sucking the brains out of two Emergency supervisors, planting eggs in their eye sockets, keeping them fresh (and alive) for snack time, later? Maybe they had just responded to a mysterious something, and now were puddles of dissolved ectoplasm. Maybe the damned should care, these damned souls, infected by Mutagen X, on their last morning before ... the changes. Heck no, nobody noticed, nudged their buddy with their elbow, pointed, or looked. It is perfectly normal for EMS supervisor vehicles to be left running on the streets of Toronto.

Leaving your work vehicle parked and idling is part of official culture in Toronto. Just outside the variety store (where I bought milk for the morning porridge) were two Emergency Supervisor vehicles. Exactly the same as the other two, and they were parked, empty, idling, keys in the ignition, and doors unlocked ... doors open. One vehicle left idling, well that is 'someone in a hurry', excusable. Two left idling is, well, 'someone in a hurry' with 'someone else in a hurry'. Four is corporate culture. Do they get trained to leave their vehicles idling? Are they given electric shock as punishment, deterrent conditioning to break them of the habit of turning off when they leave their vehicle? These are supervisor vehicles, by the way, not ambulances. They do not carry sick people; they carry paper pushers. There were four of them: all idling away; empty.

I live in a leftist stronghold. Having a car is a crime, let alone letting it idle. None of the hundreds of leftists who live in the Yonge-Eglinton area seemed to care as they rushed by, en route to their leftist jobs. Nobody choked on the engine stink. Nobody gasped at the earth rape by internal combustion engine. Where was the Bolshevik outrage? You see it all the time on the media. It is so vibrant, the staging and lighting and actions of the outraged activists when they show up in the media. But for this real crisis, they just shuffled by. Is there no outrage without media? Can there be no activism without theater? Oh well.

So, take your pick. Activism is really a staged propaganda for Bolshevik purposes. Statist culture is one of waste. Leftism does not much exist amongst the minds of the leftist worker class. Blah blah blah. Who knows? Nobody much cares. Although, I care.

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this. I care.