As I go to and from school I have to stop off at 2 sets of traffic lights. The first set has recently been edited so that pedestrians just press the button and the lights go instantly orange. The second was recently taken down for about a week during which people had to appeal to the good nature of the motorists to let them past. This often led to a stressful battle betewwn two people who are equally eager to get to work on time. Only one of them is getting drenched in the rain on a flimsy bike and the other is sat in a comfy armoured Range Rover cruising at 5o mph and honking at anyone who looks like they're going to get in his way. First of all this is grossly unfair. The natural explanation is that life's unfair and that we should all just accept it as a fact that the downtrodden will never rise up and deliver justice and equality for all. All it takes is for one of the fat men in those cars to wave at the drenched, tired cyclist and to politely let him cross the road. I like the first traffic light I come to because it forces the greedy fools to stop. What I would like even better would be that there were no traffic lights at all; that everyone on the road would drive at a safe speed; that special 'cycle lanes' for cyclists would be un-necessary because everyone on the road would be nice to each other. Unfortunately we have to put up with segregating cyclists into seperate lanes, erecting speed cameras and big reg lights on poles. These are all accompanied with fines, the law and a heavy load of symbolism to bully the bullies into staying compliant and reducing the number of people who kill or injure cyclists every year. If everyone abided to common sense and the unwritten laws of politeness then none of this system would need to exist.My second observation comes from an IT lesson which occured today. A young unambitious chav from my form was sitting next to a pakistani boy called Kasim Nawaz. I was shocked when he declared that his father did vote for the BNP, that he hated the aliens who took our jobs and tried to kill britishness. I am fully aware that this far right declaration is no different to my far-left comments on the powers-that-be. I have always expected my fellow drones never to really form opinions of their own to defend and stick up for. However, children are directly infected by their parents. That this person can be passionate about anything, at all, ever, is an achievement to society in itself. The reason chavs exist is because they don't care about anything. Perhaps this chav will have the motivation to make his way through the whole system and emerge a better person. But in a way chavs are the somewhat anarchic, rebellious aspects of our society packed up and misunderstood. Many politicians make the mistake of throwing all the young people into the same bucket. We are not all all anti-social misfit chavs but we don't want to conform to anyone's idea about the children of Britain.
Friday 16 May 2008
Fascists and traffic lights
As I go to and from school I have to stop off at 2 sets of traffic lights. The first set has recently been edited so that pedestrians just press the button and the lights go instantly orange. The second was recently taken down for about a week during which people had to appeal to the good nature of the motorists to let them past. This often led to a stressful battle betewwn two people who are equally eager to get to work on time. Only one of them is getting drenched in the rain on a flimsy bike and the other is sat in a comfy armoured Range Rover cruising at 5o mph and honking at anyone who looks like they're going to get in his way. First of all this is grossly unfair. The natural explanation is that life's unfair and that we should all just accept it as a fact that the downtrodden will never rise up and deliver justice and equality for all. All it takes is for one of the fat men in those cars to wave at the drenched, tired cyclist and to politely let him cross the road. I like the first traffic light I come to because it forces the greedy fools to stop. What I would like even better would be that there were no traffic lights at all; that everyone on the road would drive at a safe speed; that special 'cycle lanes' for cyclists would be un-necessary because everyone on the road would be nice to each other. Unfortunately we have to put up with segregating cyclists into seperate lanes, erecting speed cameras and big reg lights on poles. These are all accompanied with fines, the law and a heavy load of symbolism to bully the bullies into staying compliant and reducing the number of people who kill or injure cyclists every year. If everyone abided to common sense and the unwritten laws of politeness then none of this system would need to exist.My second observation comes from an IT lesson which occured today. A young unambitious chav from my form was sitting next to a pakistani boy called Kasim Nawaz. I was shocked when he declared that his father did vote for the BNP, that he hated the aliens who took our jobs and tried to kill britishness. I am fully aware that this far right declaration is no different to my far-left comments on the powers-that-be. I have always expected my fellow drones never to really form opinions of their own to defend and stick up for. However, children are directly infected by their parents. That this person can be passionate about anything, at all, ever, is an achievement to society in itself. The reason chavs exist is because they don't care about anything. Perhaps this chav will have the motivation to make his way through the whole system and emerge a better person. But in a way chavs are the somewhat anarchic, rebellious aspects of our society packed up and misunderstood. Many politicians make the mistake of throwing all the young people into the same bucket. We are not all all anti-social misfit chavs but we don't want to conform to anyone's idea about the children of Britain.
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