Fenster writes:
It only takes a couple of generations for social things to come full circle, with that generation’s victims this generation’s bullies, and so on.
Here is a photo of Amsterdam’s “white bicycle” program, a free bicycle share idea pushed by the anarchist-influenced Provos in the mid-sixties. Witte Fietsen for all!
And here is how the current generation of anarchists have chosen to respond to bicycle sharing in Portland, Oregon.
Stations trashed; bikes vandalized. “Our city is not a corporate amusement park.”
It is tempting to say that the anarchist spirit has stayed the same and that what has changed is the Establishment, which finds ever new ways to commodify desire. Some truth in that I am sure. But there is also a big difference between the playfulness of the earlier anarchist vision and today’s sour, angry and bleak version. No one escapes the merry-go-round.
“How dare anybody be happy if there are unhappy people in the world!”
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Playfulness is the key. My kids love prank videos on YouTube. They like to show me ones they find funny. I’ve always told them, if it’s mean spirited, I don’t want to see it, it isn’t funny.
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