Six Flags goes gross for Halloween

CNNMoney.com has posted an article featuring announcements by Six Flags Inc. about what to expect at the annual Halloween celebrations in their various parks scattered across the county, including Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest in the Los Angeles area.

Sad to say, forgetting the true spirit of Halloween, Six Flags seems to be lifted a page from gross-out reality shows, with features called “Wheel of Fright” and Coffin of Fear.”

In the former, guests will spin a wheel for an opportunity to gain access to the front of the line. They earn this privilege by eating an insect: cockroaches, worms, crickets, oysters, or Habenero peppers(?).

In the second, guests will lie in a coffin filled with meal worms for at least one minute in order to earn a prize.

Personally, I think this is sick, especially the Wheel of Fright. I don’t particularly believe that mindless invertebrates have any kind of self-awareness that would entitle them to the kind of regard animal activitists hold for higher life forms, but I cannot see any sort of moral justification for killing any creature for sport. If you’re going to eat something, it should be because you’re hungry, not because some mega-corporation is going to reward you for debasing yourself.