On Aug 11, 2011, at 3:42 AM, Bob W wrote: >> >> 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 >
Here's an article also on the theme of British violence. http://www.slate.com/id/2301233/ stan -- 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.
