Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Punch and Judy

It has become all too exciting of late to be an employee of the University of the East, what with the pronouncements of our grizzled colleague about stringing up bankers and so on.
The trouble is, it turns social occasions into discussion forums. I don't think about him at all really; he reminds me so much of the sillarchists- the silly 'anarchists' who tried in vain to persuade the punks to sign bits of paper and Be One Of Them, missing the point that to be a true anarchist you don't sign pieces of paper and belong to organisations, because that is what you are against.
This is not to say I am a fan of the bankers, many of whom should substitute a 'w' for the 'b' at the beginning of their label. Nor am I against my grizzled colleague; I don't think he really intended that his words should encourage people to go off and commit murder. All that wearies me is the predictability of the print media, in desperate need of stories and scandals to boost their circulation, who are magnifying little stories to hide the big ones, and predicting riots and hellfire so they have a story to tell over the next few days.
The University of the East is closing down for two days, much to the distress of many of the academics who want to teach their students.
There used to be a brilliant postcard on sale in the shop where I worked for a couple of years. i wish I still had one! It depicted a small bungalow with a red roof and cream walls; visible at the windows were a suburban couple, peering out worriedly, and quite understandably, for their bungalow was swirling about underwater in a deep green sea, patrolled by nasty looking hungry sharks. "STAY AT HOME" commanded the postcard.
We are all being told it is far too scary to go outside, especially if that means collecting together with other people to protest about something. STAY AT HOME with a TV dinner and watch it on the news! Let other people voice opinions for you, and if you disagree with them, you can be cross as you STAY AT HOME and switch channels to something that doesn't make you as cross.
What am I doing tomorrow? Will I STAY AT HOME? No, actually, I am going ice skating with Gina. I am too afraid of the police to go on marches any more. They are supposed to be a Police Service here in the UK but turn into a Police Force at whim, and I don't want to be whacked on the head with a truncheon and turned into a character from a Punch and Judy Show.

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