A Bunch Of Bull

Back in 2011, we spoke here about "tradition" and why it's not always a good thing to base your behavior on. Sometimes the tradition is perfectly harmless, sometimes it's quite admirable, but sometimes the tradition is downright stupid and people's only real justification for doing it is that they've been doing it for years. One example cited in that article was the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Originally done out of the need to herd bulls from a corral to a nearby bullring for the day's bullfighting (a needless tradition in its own right), it now, while still serving that purpose, is known as one of the world's foremost examples of gratuitous testosterone poisoning. As said back in 2011, people commonly root for the bulls to run their horns through as many drunken idiot tourists as possible before the same is done to them in the bullring later that night.

But as weak an excuse as it is, tradition is still an excuse, and there is at least some sort of justification for running the bulls in the first place, however weak that may be.

Cambridge, Ontario, you have no such excuse. 'Community fundraiser' is not a sufficient excuse to sign people up to be chased by bulls for no good reason. You want to raise funds for the community? Hold a bake sale.

America, you have absolutely no excuse. Even Ontario set up a bloodless bullfight to tie the thing together. You're just treating it like a thrill ride. There is no point. There is no tradition. There is no justification other than 'dude you should totally do that'. There is no reason to get chased by bulls in ten different cities nationwide, the first of which is Petersburg, VA on the 24th.

I don't know about you, but I recall that humanity evolved and adapted so that we wouldn't have to be chased around by wild animals. I think that's a pretty good gig. I'd prefer not to do anything to screw that up.