This kind of acting out has taken society by surprise every time it
occurs, yet it's really not uncommon. The extent of crowds and damage
were probably proportionate to the event. Perhaps some may recall a
similar police bashing on one little two block street in Kingston,
Ontario some years ago. It was a homecoming event for Queens University,
held on little Aberdeen Street-- where we had our family home in prior
decades. (House by house, university frat farms took over) Some 5000
turned on defenseless cops, and it made international news. Queens is
notorious for drunken craziness. Those Engineers are notorious! Once
when its football fans lost a game in Montreal, TVs were tossed out of
hotel room windows, and the usual antics of drunken mob behaviour
absolutely terrorized the downtown.
I don't think it matters to drunken rioters what the trigger is. They're
just looking for peer approval to get wild. They live in an increasingly
repressive system, they're angry at everything because they can't
control it and they have a grim future to face with their governments
piling up non repayable debt and destroying their home planet. Add
alcohol to enhance the disappointment and you can generate a lot of
real-life entertainment which rather mirrors video games they've enacted
at home. Let's not forget many of these are kids likely to be taking
anti-depressants, or are the children of parents who are taking same.
Mix those with booze and you get the real crazies flying round.
I don't know what video Michael refers to. We've been hearing rather
different stories here in Victoria about young angry men, may be16-20 of
them, doing most of the trashing. Many had bandannas covering their
faces. Reports from CBC said riot police were introduced too late, and
allowed much to happen for fear of appearing heavy handed. There may
have been police instigators, as well. It's certainly not past them.
This they have done before (G-8) in order to justify future heavy handed
crowd control tactics. Did it help that bars had line-ups to get in
starting at 11:00 a.m., and the cops didn't take the hint?
I agree with Arthur about media hype being partly to blame, and the
pathetic fact that this is entirely about corporate loss, successfully
sold to the public as team spirit and a reason for personal
identification. I find it so sad when in any sport the fans seem to have
no other reason for living, and many actually don't. Thank the
corporate/military educational system.
Just two days ago, a woman in Prince George was expressing bewilderment
over a "victory" for supporters of a multi-million dollar arena, while
another pitch for a badly needed performing arts center was scrapped.
With just a turn of events like the post-Canuks 7th game, $22 million
worth of arena could go up in smoke, so out of touch with the wonders of
the mind and sensorium, as Ray always says, are the people of our times.
Natalia
On 6/16/2011 1:56 PM, michael gurstein wrote:
Arthur,
I think that that is precisely what we can look forward to... The 21st
century equivalent of "thrill killings"... Someone almost died making a
foolish jump from one heighted perch to another, presumably while being
cameraed and egged on by his friends.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:26 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION';
[email protected]
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
So could we call this a Facebook age event. Where it doesn't matter what is
done, almost, as long as everyone can see it. And can we look forward to
more? Smash this, burn that, loot this. Kind of a graffiti riot where
everyone can play and be playful in their destruction of their playpen.
Arthur
Ps. I think the city fathers (and mothers) hyping the game along with the
CBC that earned revenues from the telecast are part of the problem. Building
up expectations to some sort of outcome.
Also, there is something sad about people cheering for corporations, which
these teams are. Yup businesses. (but as my wife says better cheering for
corporations than throwing bombs)
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael gurstein
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 2:59 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION';
[email protected]
Subject: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
Datapoints re: the Hockey Riot in Vancouver observed after the game finished
for about an hour.
1. The gender ratio was roughly 50-50.
2. Women seemed as aggressive as men.
3. At least half the folks had cameras of one sort or another and were
constantly taking pictures. 4. The crowd overall was cheerful. 5. Lots of
alcohol and marijuana but not a lot of falling down drunk people. 6. Almost
no one was covering their faces.
What does that sound like. To me it seems rather more like a concert
audience than the makeup of a serious riot.
I think the key things though was the gender equality, the cameras, the
general good cheer and the uncovered faces.
What made this different from a rock concert was the presence of the police.
They were costumed differently from normal rock concert security-kitted up
in riot gear complete with black uniforms, shields, weapons etc.etc.
But nor was this Seattle, the G20 Toronto or Tahir Square. These folks
weren't afraid of being seen and recognized, they were going out of their
way to be recognized and they wanted that recognition, captured and
presumably re-presented to the world via SMS, Facebook or Youtube and the tv
news.
This wasn't a riot. It was a performance with much of the violence as far as
I could see it being done for photo capture and transmission rather than out
of deviltry, rage or simple youthful destructiveness. On one of the news
shows a reporter passed along a story that the original truck which was
burned near the hockey rink had been deliberately brought to the site and
left exposed there so that it could be torched should the Canucks lose.
What is televised will not be the revolution.
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