If you lived in the 60′s

An old article I worked on. November 2010

The R L Journal

If you lived in the 60’s would you have been tripping out on acid at some concert fighting for your freedom through free expression? Would you have been hailing Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in celebration of their achievements in the battle against racial inequality?

On 16 October 1793 would you have been throwing rotten tomatoes at Marie Antoinette, not from your local Tesco, but from your back garden or the local market? Would you have taken violently to the street in the hope of improving your current situation?

What about on the 10^th of November when a student demonstration against cuts and increments to university funding and fees occurred in London. Where were you then?

In England we saw the first noteworthy demonstration in years and it has been condemned for violence and dubbed ‘out of control’ by many. Students marched out on the 10^th

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An Open Arguement to be Misunderstood at Your Leisure

It’s like when a baby cries and you give her her favourite milk but she cries some more. You try her favourite food yet the crying continues so you change her nappy to no avail. Without any luck you rock her cradle, sing her favourite song and try a million and one things until she is too tired to cry and your wits are worn thin. All you hear is crying and you wish you could understand its meaning but fail and continue trying the wrong things.

We are not babies. We have words and more still the ability to act, yet we wear masks so as to be as unidentifiable as our demands and cry and cry and cry for change. We have a couple of strops each year, throw some things about and decry capitalism only to return to work for the rest of the year and shop and shop until we drop. We even set money aside to shop after we drop. That or we go to school to learn how to cry and cry and cry and work and work and work and shop and shop and shop.

We constantly dream of change yet are forever unclear as to how to affect that change. Hell we we are not even sure what kind of change we want because at a protest denouncing university fees we find factions crying out against Cameron, others against austerity, yet more still against capitalism while some are opposed to excessive surveillance, pollution, climate change, war, racism, police brutality, immigration or call for legalisation as the students themselves play drums, blow whistles and shout amidst the din for change while simultaneously planning the excessively successful after-party where enthusiastic discussions on events that have affected no change are held over thin lines and empty bottles, all before getting ready for Monday’s lecture.

We continue arguing without specification and we cry and cry and cry until we are too tired even to speak, thus we are forced to return to our daily lives seething.

Have we forgotten that change is the only constant in life? Unless we can declare the exact type of change we want, we shall see it only in our flesh and bones and hair and air. Instead of crying for all change at once, why not decide which change we wish to see first, focus all our strength on that and once it is achieved move on to the next objective?

We are the change we wish to see however at the moment we are simply a conglomeration of a chaotic mess. As we progress in out chosen path the change we seek is inevitable but it will be wholly unlike what we imagined. It will be a disappointment that will force our children and their children’s children to take to the streets in masks and cry!

On Protests, Peaceful or Otherwise.

When tensions run high, shit is going to unfold. Depending on the situation; feelings will be hurt, rumours will run the hamster’s wheel and angry shouts will erupt. Defamation will be the case and slander will ring true to some. Lies will be told, slaps handed over and punches dished out. Massive water guns and tear gas projectiles will be packed and launched into crowds and rubber bullets will be fired at those running wild. Riots will erupt and live rounds will be loaded to await the slightest sign of unrest for a shot.

Many will be hurt and many will die.

All for containment and peace or a reassertion of what you think right. The original disagreement will not matter. Only survival will. Survival of the fittest who will be able to argue the chaos towards their favour and means.

And it would be a simple thing to argue. “We wanted to contain them safely, but they ran rampant like packs of rabid dogs with a freshly acquired taste for raw meat. They would have killed us all. Everyone would have died if we hadn’t done what we did. It to save as many lives as we could.” Or:
“We wanted to protest peacefully but they opened fire on us like rabbits at a hunt so we defended ourselves in any way possible. We would be dead if we hadn’t done what we did. It to save as many lives as we could.”

To all the leaders out there, when you call for a protest or a clamp down against some sort of infraction, remember that not everyone is as much in control of their selves as you. Unless of course this is the carnage you wanted in the beginning. Be clear on what you are willing to lose. There is no true way of knowing how some people will react to your righteous measures.

It doesn’t matter who threw the first punch. The one who gets away is the one who argues it well in the media circus-like aftermath. Just know that many will be hurt or dead and that more likely than not, nothing will be achieved…

…Except chaos. Chaos and hatred and the desire for revenge.