> > Maybe it's just me, but when I read about these riots in the UK I > think of a combination of A Clockwork Orange and Neuromancer. >
when I was growing up I used to watch riots, looting and suchlike on TV coming from places like the USA, and my older brother and I even walked through the riots in Singapore in the mid-60s. I used to think riots & looting were a foreign phenomenon that the British were above. But in fact we have a very long history of rioting and violence, including ones like these that just seem to come out of nowhere. The Gordon Riots of the late 18th century are an example. I've been reading a book about the British written by a French journalist who has lived here for a long time. The French of course have their own history of rioting, but she talks about an underlying propensity for violence in British culture which is not present in other cultures. This may be true, and lies behind some of the violence of A Clockwork Orange - teddy boys, mods & rockers, football violence, political violence and so on. But the key message of A Clockwork Orange is not about the violence of Alex and his droogs, it is about the violence used by the state against him, and about free will and choice. B > On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 5:47 PM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of > >> frank theriault > >> Sent: 10 August 2011 21:38 > >> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > >> Subject: Re: Swords into ploughshares... > >> > >> On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 4:36 PM, frank theriault > >> <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Bob W <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> ...riot shields into tea-trays. > >> >> > >> >> A great picture - not one of mine, alas - from London in the > early > >> hours: > >> >> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixel-eight/6024429000/> > >> > > >> > That is a wonderful photo. Hope things cool down there soon. > >> > Something about hot summers (is it hot there) and riots, I'm > >> afraid... > >> > >> Forgot the question mark at the end of the parentheses. Should have > >> been "(is it hot there?)" > >> > >> -f > > > > This is England. Hot and summer don't belong in the same sentence. > > > > B > > > > > > -- > > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > > [email protected] > > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above > and follow the directions. > > > > > > -- > Steve Desjardins > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
