Why were human children considered toxic?

[mentalguru]

Just a discussion. As it has been discovered that human children are not toxic- how did this false belief come to be so widely accepted?

Is it possible that, after the thousands of years of seperation, certain monsters when, they decided to use the screams or perhaps gained contact some other way again, they died from relatively minor things like low risk forms of flu and colds etc. which they didn't have an immunity to? (Those with slightly lower immune systems that is?) Then over time, perhaps eventually, with those with better immune systems surviving, through increased contact and passing to one another became immune to most minor human high infectious ailments , but the high risk was still believed to exist.

Or perhaps it was just a vestigal fear from something else related to human entirely? Perhaps not related to kids except indirectly?

Or is it just one big conspiracy? Any other suggestions?

[pitbulllady]

I think it's a little of everything you suggested, or as they put in on the multiple-choice tests, "all of the above". Like many widely-held, but utterly false, beliefs, this probably had some basis in truth, somewhere, but over time, things just got "stretched' past, and then some monsters discovered how to use that misconception to their own advantage, to control others, especially if they themselves knew the truth.
Waternoose talks a pitiful game, about losing the company that's been in his family for three generations, etc., but here's the truth: the company's name ends with "Inc.", which means that no one individual or family owns it at all, but rather, it's owned by STOCKHOLDERS. Waternoose is just a high-ranking employee of those stockholders, who oversee the Board of Directors, and the latter are the actual policy-makers. The company might have once belonged to Waternoose's family, but it really doesn't anymore, so his angle of doing what he was doing to keep from losing the company doesn't hold water. He was just wanting to make more money, for HIMSELF, not the company, and the whole "Scream crisis" was, in part at least, a sham concocted by him, mirroring the ENRON scandal that broke here in the US shortly before the movie came out. Waternoose used the old tale of "toxic" children to justify raising utility rates on customers, claiming the risk to his Scarers was high enough that this was the only way to keep them on, while the Scarers themselves actually only made minimum wage!

pitbulllady

[RandallBoggs]

*gasp* SSsshhh! They'll hear you 0_- ^_-

*folds arms in tent* The use of toxicity is really quite simple in it's execution. Monsters Inc. was NOT the first scream collection facility. It was actually, for lack of creative naming, Scare Co. Development in scareing had lead from simple revenge on humanity, to amusement, and soon turned itself into a thriving business. It wasn't till many generations that the door mechanisms were invented to be used as a direct line to kids rooms, thus making scareing that much more easier.
*blinks* I'm sorry, revealing too much here. Ahem.....
Scare Co, being the mega corporation it is, is thus responsible for a large percentage of scream collection, refining, and distribution. This continous flow requires not only the safety of the workers, but of the public as well. If you knew where you were getting your energy wasn't dangerous...would you be curious enough to investigate it?
*folds arms* Thus the simplicity of toxicity...protection. The officials of the Monster World, many of which would know humans are not toxic, used the age-old created fear to establish a wall that seperated humanity from monstrosity.
Anybody who was curious enough or involved themselves were discredited...or banished. *folds arms* Of course...once word got out thanks to a furry who should've stayed out of things...Scare Co. levied the new energy source and gave him the CEO position to keep him busy, and quiet.
As for Waternoose's involvement...depends if they want him to continue to live the rest of his short life or not.
And for Randall....well...interestingly enough...he disappeared...

[tmazanec1]

Right, pitbulllady. Waternoose said to Sully, after a compliment, "Try telling that to the Board of Directors." They were Waternoose's bosses.

[mentalguru]

True, true. Waternoose could use this to his advantage.

If children were toxic, then Sulley and Randall and all the other Scarers were walking into a nuclear zone with no protective clothing! The CDA wears suits to deal with a SOCK. single SOCK.

I'm kind of surprised none of the Scarers ever questioned that. I mean, kids get EVERYWHERE and touch EVERYTHING. They walked on the floor that children would clambour over, touch things they had touched.

Were Scarers ever hosed down after work?! I don't think the were.

It seems pretty bizarre actually.

[RandallBoggs]

Or someone Waternoose saw more as a threat to his own insturments.
============================
That's the type of skill a Scarer needs, or their scareing would be limited. There's actually a class on "avoiding objects" in a child's room that is key to not getting a 23-19 or similiar.

As smart as I think Ran is, he might not have wondered about that himself, despite knowing kids aren't toxic, as he had other things on his mind. As for the other scarers...some MIGHT...but the panic of being decontaminated was just too much.

Uhh that actually happened once when George....nevermind ^_^