People of every colour, marching side to side. Marching 'cross these fields where a million fascists died. You're bound to lose, you fascists bound to lose!
~Woody Guthrie, "All You Fascists"
Well, the weeks have sidled by with their backs against the cold brick walls of life; careful to stay in the shadows and avoid detection by various law enforcement agencies, wandering Jehovah's Witnesses and earnest old ladies fundraising for the local bowling club's annual "Sit Around, Drink Tea and Reminisce About Our Lost Youth" event. But the mood and the weather has well and truly packed it in. Snow in the city.
From across the seas of inevitability, London has run a ripple of visceral fear through the quivering jowls of those old ladies grasping their donation buckets with emaciated talons. It is now safe to assume every and any hoodie wearing boy or girl on the street is a vermin-souled cur; a ne'er-do-well, bad-lifestyle-choice making looter in waiting. All iniquities must be brushed forthwith under the collective carpet of public outrage.
Yet beneath the braying of the corporate papers, spineless pundits and fearful masses, locked away tighter than the funds raised by Mildred and the gals on behalf of the Bowling Club - in the hearts of any and all remaining forward thinking people in the West - is the truth. Like always, it hurts. But it's a-comin', as Woody Guthrie would have said.
The violence and wanton destruction in various parts of Britain's most bloated and rotting city is just the first shrugging, sloping, tracksuited sign of mass rebellion in Britain. Just because the lean young bloke in purple Adidas sneakers and homemade face mask might not be able to tell you in specific political or historical detail why he's just helped to smash up a portion of Tottenham on a seemingly random day in mid-summer, doesn't mean that political and historical reasons don't exist. Writing these riots off as mere mindless thuggery is both dishonest and cowardly. If thousands of young, predominantly youthful black males are smashing up Olde London Town in the year 2011 for absolutely nothing, then I'm a died in the wool capitalism-loving, free marketeer.
30 years of neo-liberal economics, greed, successive governmental regimes spouting weak platitudinous rhetoric, and complete disregard for those in need has led us down this path. There will be millions more young men and women in hoodies and masks smashing cities across the Western world in the next ten years. The spark might be police corruption and killing, as it was in the case of Mark Duggan. It might be regressive, restrictive policies implemented by increasingly insipid democratic governments of all persuasions that are owned by corporate and banking interests. It might just be that the sheer day-after-day drudgery of poverty eventually becomes too much to bear for too many people. No job, no house, no family, no future, no change. Doesn't leave too much scope or hope for legal recourse, does it?
If the riots were simply a cry for attention to be paid to the millions unable to live decent, respectable lives in the so-called free world, do you think the leaders of the West listened? Or did they regress to divisive, derogatory speech, reactionary fear and loathing, and threats of State-sponsored fascism? You can lock up rioters, but the numbers of working and non-working poor are growing steadily larger as the wealth of the world concentrates in the upper stratospheres of this global Ponzi scheme we're wilting under. The British government will lock away these people for their actions, but fail to address and improve the lives of all poor people in Britain. The rest of the Western world will do the same, ignorantly awaiting the first outward rebellions in their own cities.
The 2011 riots might one day be remembered for their youthful exuberance. One enthusiastic dude even called for folks to "come join the fun" down a TV camera. At the time I laughed at what I imagined the Mildreds of the world would have thought of that likely lad's invitation. However, when London and the rest of the world is rioting for the third time in 2021 in the wake of global economic collapse and dwindling industrial energy and food supplies, will it then dawn on us that we're nothing more than jaded old cunts, and we've wasted the world and all our lives in the pursuit of empty, dollar-sign distractions? Will we see that the beauty of our lives lies in being collectively happy and prosperous, or are we forever damned to killing each other in increasingly brutal ways? It is time to organise and push for some fundamental and substantial change in the world - that is the message of London, 2011.
Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What do you suppose future generations will say of us in the fullness of time?
***
In non-ranting band news, we're playing Bummerslam 2011 this Friday night in Tauranga with a bunch of other good cunts. If you're in town and not of retirement age you should come on down and shake your mafuckin' groove thang. Attic Sky's are playing and they're a talented bunch of young dudes, so if you're in to talented young dudes that should tickle your weird little fancy. Anyways, it's at Krazy Jacks. Starts at 11pm. See y'all there!
Also, the "Will Play For Food" gig a couple weeks back was a raging success. Big, enthusiastic, philanthropic crowds are good for the soul. A large and hearty thanks to all the weird and wonderful people who donated food for the less fortunate and danced the night away. And an even larger and heartier FUCK YOU to the little dipshits who started a geographical "I'm from the western suburbs and you're from the eastern suburbs, therefore we are enemies" fight out the front of the bar in between bands. Grow up, you little fags. We're all from the same city, and all gangs are lame. Barking like dogs in the street at one another is just sad and frankly depressing. Lucky enough to be born a human being and you spend your Friday night barking and slinging unintelligent, Nazi gang slogans at your cousins out front of a punk rock show? Not much to be said for that.
Anyways. True love,
~Mitch.
No comments:
Post a Comment