The Tragic Story of Bob

Can the flapping of butterfly wings in Timbucktoo cause the tornado that blows Dorothy to Oz?

Would you be surprised if the answer seemed like it could be yes?

Bob wonders. He really wonders. You see, Bob tried to get a job selling batteries. He won't get that job for a variety of reasons. Someone was cheated. Someone else was hurt. In another town, a guy named Alan was let out of jail and pardoned for his crimes. It turns out that Alan was not as deserving of his special treatment as it had been originally surmised. A wrong decision was made.

Many people were upset that these terrible things were happening, and it was confusing since in many cases the people who were the most upset were not the people who actually had the bad things happen to them. 

Bob made the mistake of going to a bar one night. In retrospect he probably shouldn't have. Butterfly wings are very powerful.

Bob punched someone at a bar. The person very likely deserved it. Bob received an assault charge and a criminal record. He had to take an anger management class and serve some community service. Later he would tell people that he felt very bad for having punched the guy in the bar who deserved it. It was a silly thing to have done.

Bob could not have known at the time that there were more obscure reasons for not punching the guy at the bar who deserved it, reasons that extended far beyond that it was simply a silly thing to have done. A man named Alan was pardoned, and Alan should not have been given a free pass. Alan was not responsible for the someone who was cheated, or the someone who was hurt, but had the system not been flawed enough to grant Alan a pardon in the first place, then it seemed logical to assume that these other bad things might not have happened.

People were tired of bad things happening. They tried to put more laws in place to stop bad things from happening, but for some reason that had little affect. They decided that the only thing left to do was make sure that punishments were more severe and long lasting. Mayors and Prime Ministers and such were fine with the decision since they were tired of bad things happening as well. Every time something bad happened, like the whole Alan incident, their names kept getting thrown around negatively in the newspapers.

The Mayors and Prime Ministers had long ago determined that it was very hard to fix holes in existing plumbing. It was much easier to simply remove the plumbing and let the shit fall where it may. A bill would be passed eliminating Bob's chance to ever receive a pardon for having punched a guy in a bar who deserved it. It was foolproof. No one could complain about Alan being given an unfair pardon if nobody could receive pardons anymore.

Why wouldn't a peace loving society pass a bill eliminating pardons? Bob could be a person who cheated or hurt people, or might some day be wrongfully let out of prison. Right?

Unlikely since Bob was never in prison in the first place, though he does share at least one thing in common with the above mentioned man named Alan, in that they both have a criminal record.

Meanwhile, a corporation somewhere decided that it was okay to push the boundaries during their interview process. They got away with asking some questions that they should not have been able to ask. After all, it was written in black and white under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that the corporation was not allowed to ask the sorts of questions that it asked.

Bob did not know when he punched the guy in the bar who deserved it that corporations were getting away with asking questions they were not allowed to ask. He was not aware that the company that sold batteries was one of those corporations. At the time he would not have even cared because Bob always wanted more for himself than working for minimum wage selling batteries, but he punched a guy in a bar who deserved it, so many of his options went the way of the Dodo.

Bob, it turns out, thinks that it is horrible when bad things happen to people. He feels very strongly that people should not be cheated or hurt, and people who should be in jail should probably stay there, and that some people should not receive pardons. What Bob did not understand when he punched the guy in the bar who deserved it was how those things he believed very strongly in would have anything to do with him getting a job selling batteries.

Too bad for Bob. Butterflies flapped their wings. The battery company is going to ask Bob some questions that they are not allowed to ask. If Bob answers these questions he will not get the job. If he refuses to answer these questions, he will not get the job. The battery company is able to ask the sorts of questions it is asking, which it is not supposed to be allowed to ask, because someone was cheated, and someone was hurt; somewhere someone stole a cookie from a child, and somewhere else some vandals wrecked a tombstone. Plus there was Alan.

Bob deserves what is coming to him. After all he once punched a guy in a bar who deserved it. Why would we want someone of that calibre selling us batteries? Bob was irresponsible once, so there is absolutely nothing to say that he won't be irresponsible again some day.

Of course, that is the price for freedom. The Bobs of the world get swept under the rug, then the rug gets driven over by a Mac Truck. Tolerance and Understanding breed weakness, and Criminals like Bob prey on weakness. Everybody knows that.

Right?