This blog began life as a status post on Facebook that morphed into a big rant and had to be posted (on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 at 15.14) as a 'Note' due to it's rapidly increased size. It started as a reaction and humble opinion-in-a-nutshell to the riots that were raging in London; and the various conversations with friends caught up in the middle of the troubles; as well as to the blinkered misguided Facebook reactions by small-towners delivering their angry opinions on these rioting "animals" down South from the safety of their cut-off, cotton-wool covered sanctuary.
It makes sense to just recreate the note as a blog here even if it was just one moment and just another mere opinion to get lost in the sea of anger and disbelief caused by the riots.
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Collectivism: The Revolution 'Will' Be Televised.
Collectivism is generally somthing to admire and place on a pedestal. This country borne democracy and thrived on shared responsibility and I can't help but compare the weekend at The Open House Bandstand event with what is happening (in a collective sense) in London and other cities. The Bandstand is successful because of the togetherness of the WU Collective and a shared ideal of all-for-one-and-one-for-all and the benefit of the Collective. People came from London and other towns and cities in our fair country to share in the fun as well as from parts of Europe and even L.A. to make it what it was. Meanwhile the, "youth revolution being televised," is left to mobilise itself in a militant sense with the skills and experiences that this country has left them with which is, essentially, nothing. They are alienated. No opportunities to push on to university, no jobs, not even able to sign-on in many cases. They have to make their living in other ways and this is now manifesting itself in the looting and the riots."This is kids simply surviving in the only way they know how [...] this is a statement they're making and this is revolution and it is being televised. The news shows the worst spots but it's on every street and every housing estate whether it's Chelsea or Peckham [...] and unless you've lived this poverty, brother, you can't understand why this is happening. We're all involved now."
Although I am not condoning what is happening I am accepting that the powder keg was going to catch a spark. I have seen it with my own eyes.
It was a good friend who gave me the above quote while he was trying to get home at 11 this morning and he described the scenes as he walked down Walworth Road in South-East London, my Old London Town home, which shares the neighbours of Camberwell, Peckham and Brixton at one end and E&C, Waterloo and Big Ben/The Thames on the other. Nothing is open, everything is barracaded that has not already been destroyed.
There will be a conclusion to this madness but I am in fear for what that may be. I am scared for the people I care for in London and now Liverpool and the country in general. Gil Scott-Heron got one minor/major detail wrong when he said the revolution will not be televised because it is and is now promoting it and has life breathed in to it in a whole range of other ways today too. Nevertheless it is revolution until its momentum is chopped down because the Establishment's chance to nip it in the bud passed a long time ago and the bud is, quite literally, fighting back.
Remain true to your community and maintain collectivism for the good and not the bad.
Stay safe people.
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Comment:
"This is a mere rant born of love and concern for all things under threat. Apologies if it's all a little disjointed. What I'm talking of is exactly that: disjointed, fractured, frustrated." (Tuesday at 15:42)
