Once again, America misses the point
[Insert deep, resounding sigh here]
Once again, our country just doesn’t get it.
We spend money on this instead of ending the war in Iraq, working to find energy alternatives in the wake of a petroleum price spike, feeding our impoverished, improving urban schools, or making my more heathcare more affordable. No, no – graffiti is the real problem. If we stop the graffiti, obviously the gangs will just say “Uh… I guess we should just get rid of these drugs and guns and shit and disband.” Obviously.
Although I’m not a fan of graffiti in certain areas (like, say… my new Acura), there is something to be said for graffiti as an urban artform. It’s relatively cheap to buy the tools with which to tag things and it requires no formal training. I’ve seen some incredible graffiti around Philadelphia, resulting from both urban renewal projects (those murals you see on 76, which aren’t quite graffiti, but an example of urban art) to the tags of my buddy Rob who used to bring his ink pens around the Main Line on our walks.
This tracking system also raises issues of American government striving to become “Big Brother.” I agree with Simon Davies, head of Privacy International, when he says:
“The money they are spending on this should be reinvested in urban regeneration, using graffiti as an art form. Surveillance tracking destroys self-esteem and there are more effective solutions to urban dysfunction.”
The government isn’t considering the reprocussions of theparanoia that builds within a society that is controlled to this extent. True, there is little that the government has control of – drugs, organized crime, an unpopular war… but American government is beginning to resemble a stress-induced bulimic – taking control of something completely outside of the problematic situations that are spiraling out of control.
I need to move to Switzerland immediately.
Source: BBC.com (because only news orgs outside this country would comment on this)
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Comments
Mike Panic
Way back when I messed around with writing, it was great, being 14 and not giving a fuck. Some of my friends are very accomplished “artists” who managed to make a living at it now, even though their roots are deep in the graffiti world. A good friend of mine works for a train company and sends me text messages daily of some of the most amazing work on rail cars that no one ever gets to see.
The problem with graffiti is that a lot of people like it on their terms. By this I mean, they like to go into the city, look at it, take a photo of it. Or be in rural America, sit at a train crossing and watch rail cars wiz by while looking at it. No one really wants to come home to their home tagged up. No one wants to step into a car that someone has hit with a rattle can. They want it on their t-shirt from some trendy clothing company, as a wallpaper on their cell phone, but only on their terms.