Comments on SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS: goodbye blackberry way

Yes. I'm aware of the mess of contradictions. ...

2011-08-15T10:01:28.511+01:00

Yes. I'm aware of the mess of contradictions.

"Get pissed. Destroy".

It goes something like this: while the Pistols declared war, while El Sid might have marched like an enthusiatic puppet on a safety-pin, it was art, nonetheless. Energized and energizing.

Mould injected; packaged; sold.

Maybe it is just that my recollection of it is hopelessly tarred by nostalgia. Maybe it's just a case of when the bad shit goes down, I don't want a part of it.

I stand (loosely) by my original argument. Even if I stumble.

The London shopping sprees aren't about doctrine, I don't think; more a symptom of consumerism run riot. Rampant opportunism.

Well. You're right, of course, to reprimand me for splitting hairs.

A thirty-three-year-old man sets fire to a furniture store. A sixteen-year-old youth beats a pensioner to death for attempting to stop his corner of the world from going up in smoke. A twenty-three-year-old woman is broadcast from the CCTV footage walking out a store with a jumble of Nike shoes clasped to her chest and an orgasmic glow etched into her face.
Three asian men are murdered in Birmingham trying to protect their family business.

And I guess that I just don't know.

You said, "El Sid absolved of all commitment....

2011-08-15T06:09:46.631+01:00

You said, "El Sid absolved of all commitment...like the moronic little nazi that he perhaps always was"

But to badly misquote Walter from The Big Lebowski:
'Nihilist stand for nothing. At least the Social Democrats had an ethos.'

A tribe of Sid Vicious with "Anarchy in the U.K." without a Joe Strummer warning about the "Clampdown"

Thank you, Anto. For telling it the way you see it...

2011-08-15T00:23:46.929+01:00

Thank you, Anto. For telling it the way you see it.

I have had arguments with junkies shooting gear in stairwells. I have had disagreements with white and black youths and thirty-year-old men peddling crack in lifts.

I am too old for this tired old shit, in the final analysis. I no longer fill a space with physical presence in the way I maybe once did; the anarchic threat of danger.

And I'm quite fatigued, too, by the lip. The positive discrimination.

Those wan good-doers who would not dream of stepping where their mouth goes for fear of getting taxed.

There. I've said it after the event, in some semblance of solidarity. I'm weary of the same old same old.

I might have turned into my old man, when I wasn't listening, also.

My dad was often brutal in his sense of fair play, where I was once just brutal. It's been so long, I can't rightly remember.

i think the attempts to understand this, to put me...

2011-08-14T20:39:44.728+01:00

i think the attempts to understand this, to put meaning on it and the search for an answer is wildly off target. Your summation Ib is spot on. Sure some of the fuckers who did this are poor but plenty were not. The fact that JB sports was the main target tells you what we are talking about here. The number of times the mobs were referred to as 'protestors' only shows how off the mark the media were.

I think the police are right to shot gubcarrying crack dealers by the way. There, i've said it. I've turned into me Da.

JM: 'Austerity' - poverty, deprivation, d...

2011-08-14T11:03:38.623+01:00

JM:

'Austerity' - poverty, deprivation, disaffection - was inarguably a mobilizing factor in its initial stages.

It may be that those middle-class youths who commuted in from the suburbs to grab their slice of pie, to bask in the radiated heat, were in the minority. It is highly possible.

It may be, too, that those elements of organised crime which capitalized on the moment played only a small role in events.

I don't think so.

This had little in common with those riots in Brixton and Tottenham in the 1980s. Toxteth.

Crucially, it shares nothing of value with economic and social upheaval as is reported in Europe and the Middle East.

What occurred in London this last week seems to me more like the cynical exploitation of one trigger event. Gathering momentum in a vacuum.

Jon: I am still thinking my way through this. I a...

2011-08-14T10:36:22.971+01:00

Jon:

I am still thinking my way through this. I am revisiting my original response. With a scalpel. The amendments are minor, but possibly make every difference.

Not so much as nihilism, I don't think, as consumerism in extremis.

The absence of regard for self and neighbour, is seems, is a by-product of the overriding urge to consume - at all costs - to strip the lansdscape bare like locusts.

Media commentators in 1976 were quick to define punk as 'nihilist' - to ascribe negativity - but, as we know, that negativity was harnessed to a well of creativity.

What we are witnessing here, as Farren observes, is El Sid absolved of all commitment; turned loose to destroy and loot like the moronic little nazi that he perhaps always was, devoid of any governing influence or restraint. Scissored out of context with Rotten and McLaren. The bigger picture.

I want those boots, I'll f@ckin' take 'em.

I don't know. It's just that the terminology is too loaded. By association. Existstentialist angst. Poetry. Art. Music. Culture.

It's not that the youth who spilled out onto the streets here care about absolutely nothing; conversely, they care ABSOLUTELY about material ownership. And little else.

Designer tags. Labels. Brands.

Raise what can't be worn - carried off - to the ground. Like columns of the Hitler Youth looting with impunity.

The austerity is also to blame, I think: http://ww...

2011-08-13T22:49:00.263+01:00

The austerity is also to blame, I think:
http://www.consumertrap.com/2011/08/brixton-fuel-consumerism.html

2011-08-13T20:39:04.642+01:00

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2011-08-13T20:16:05.582+01:00

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Nihilism. It's the only thing that really is t...

2011-08-13T18:30:08.029+01:00

Nihilism. It's the only thing that really is trickling down in this economy.

Well put, Löst Jimmy. It was, as you rightly cor...

2011-08-13T13:27:17.723+01:00

Well put, Löst Jimmy.

It was, as you rightly correct, a mix of disparate elements which converged to set fire to the streets of London. A series of events emulated in cities to the north.

In particular - but not solely - "the disaffected youth bent on riding the broken rollercoaster til the end".

Oh, there will certainly ensue more Draconian legislation. A clampdown.

"The power to switch off the social networking sites in times of emergency, to manipulate the welfare state, to marginalise further", yes. All this and more.

London, as things stand, hosts the most densely implemented network of CCTV anywhere on the planet. Privacy tenuously prevails, but only behind closed doors.

And still they demand more.

"...a parliamentary-police-media cabal of the most obscene kind".

The tendency to sit back and merely compile CCTV footage - to desist from engagement or intervention, to issue warrants for arrest only after the fact - will no doubt pave the way for farther cuts. Creating more urban pockets where events are merely monitored from a safe distance. Crudely contained. Left to fester.

This has been the way of it for some time. The shape of things.

There are reports of disturbance in area C. The authorities advise all citizens to remain in their homes, to avoid those trouble spots until further notice. Any casualties will be removed - safely disposed of - in the morning.

Don't call us; we'll call (on) you.

I lack the know-who to solve this bitter turn of e...

2011-08-13T12:30:27.859+01:00

I lack the know-who to solve this bitter turn of events. It was in view the coming together of a variety of elements, the genuine anti-authority, the professional fagins as you rightly say, the opportunist, the thrill seeker, the disaffected youth bent on riding the broken rollercoaster til the end.
I can see further state excuse however to roll in more draconian statute. The power to switch off the social networking sites in times of emergency, to manipulate the welfare state, to marginalise further.
What example is there for Joe Public when we see disinformation from the Fuzz, bent MPs, a parliamentary-police-media cabal of the most obscene kind. England is reaping what it sowed, weeds an' all!