YES! Armin - brilliant article!
On 10 December 2010 13:00, marc garrett <[email protected]> wrote: > The Return of King Mob. > > By Armin Medosch. > > The student demonstrations against the rise of tuition fees, the fourth > of which took place yesterday, 9 December 2010 signals the return of > King Mob to the streets of London. > > King Mob was the name of a British Situationist splinter group formed in > the early 1970s which took its name from the Gordon Riots of June 1780, > in which rioters daubed the slogan "His Majesty King Mob"' on the walls > of Newgate prison, after gutting the building, Wikipedia informs us. The > significance is unmissable that in an episode of last nights running > battles between protesters and police the car of the heir to the throne > and his wife was attacked. The police tactic of kettling badly misfired > as some of those who escaped the kettle vented their anger on shops in > Oxford street and the car of the royals. There was even some rumour of > some looting going on, reported by BBC news, but later not followed up. > The attack on the royals, a remnant of a feudal order, entirely > parasitic in its continued exploitation of land-ownership, could be as > significant as the death of Lady Di in a car crash which was like an > enactment of J.G.Ballard's novel Crash. As much as the princess 'killed' > by the media was the emblematic image of the previous era, the prince > and his wife haunted by fear of the hydra-like mob could become the > emblematic image of the new one. As the youth of England discovers that > it has been robbed of its future by a government nobody has voted for, > implementing policies never discussed and not agreed by a majority of > people, which is then called 'democratic' by the prime minister because > a majority of the stooges of capitalism voted for it in a house called > Parliament, students detect the pleasure of direct action and > extra-parliamentary opposition. While only too predictably the focus of > the media is on 'violence' - as if the cuts themselves were not violent, > 80% cuts to the overall teaching budget, 100% cuts in the arts and > humanities - it was a pleasure to hear those very clear voices of young > people who defended their decision to protest undeterred from the BBC > reporter's insistence on the question if they condoned violence or not. > The 'violence' question has taken on a kind of ritualistic significance > on TV. You are certainly not allowed to say 'yes, the violence is good, > it helps our aims' as with all the anti-terror legislation now in place > you could become victim of breaking certain laws against 'support of > criminal activity'. The young people drawn into the spotlight of the > camera nevertheless got their message through. Look, we are all working > class people here, said the Asian schoolgirl. This is not just about > cuts, however deemed necessary or not, but an ideologically driven > reshuffle of the higher education system which is now becoming a market, > as the income of universities - and departments - will directly depend > on contingent decision making of 'customers' - their prospective > students. While the government dares to call this system 'progressive' > the Asian schoolkid was clear that maybe people coming from poorer > backgrounds also wanted to study arts and humanities, where they could > hardly expect to ever earn enough to pay back the huge loans soon > necessary to study in the UK. > > more... > http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/1347 > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
