Comments on Fluffytek Art Blog: Panem et circenses

"People sometimes inquire what form of government ...

2008-08-04T14:39:00.000+01:00

"People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all."
Oscar Wilde
1856-1900, British Author, Wit

"The ordinary man is an anarchist. He wants to do as he likes. He may want his neighbor to be governed, but he himself doesn't want to be governed. He is mortally afraid of government officials and policemen."
George Bernard Shaw
1856-1950

“We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.”
Edward M. Forster
1879-1970, British Novelist, Essayist

“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.”
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
1900-1944, French Aviator, Writer

I think we are all turning into sheep. "They" continue to beat us down with a constant barrage of media hype be it security or gas prices or war and finally we just say...Oh Ok...we fell overwhelmed and defeated with a feeling of being powerless to change what we have been conditioned to see as the inevitable outcome.

I think that the few people that really run the world look down from their window and say "Look at the poor bastards, they think they really have a choice."

D.L. Wood

Are there still people that make a habit of destro...

2008-08-04T12:39:00.000+01:00

Are there still people that make a habit of destroying or disabling the CCTV cams?

Alas there's no underground revolution here that I know of. People are used to CCTV now. They grumble a bit of course, but that's as far as it goes. Too busy with the bread and circuses you see. It's starting to happen in the States too despite Jimmy's belief that Americans won't let it. Read the map.

Lin,Are there still people that make a habit of de...

2008-08-04T10:51:00.000+01:00

Lin,

Are there still people that make a habit of destroying or disabling the CCTV cams? I read something about that a while back. I know that the government was talking big fines for anyone caught doing it, but that there were several individuals bent on the practice.

"Panem et circenses." How long did it appease my a...

2008-08-04T02:40:00.000+01:00

"Panem et circenses." How long did it appease my ancestor's rulers? (I'm born of an Italian-American family.) Are the governments of the UK and the US trotting down the path to totalitarianism or inviting revolution?

The UK, IMO, is in greater danger. Your's is a country with a long history of totalitarian-like rule. (Centuries of monarchs and all that.) Your writers and musicians have long obssessed with the dangers of tyranny and totalitarianism. (From Orwell to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" to "V is for Vendetta," and beyond.)

The US, OTOH, has a very different history. We are a nation born of revolution. Perhaps we take our liberties and freedoms more personally? In fact, we are so consumed with "freedom" and "democracy" that our people are easily tricked into going to war with just about anyone our leaders tell us are dangers to those two things. We are sheep with fangs. Our leaders have often been in for big and unhappy surprises. Why? Becuause they sometimes forget about the fangs until it's too late.

Does this mean I'm unconcerned about issues of lost rights and liberties. No. I just think the UK is in greater danger than we are. You might be surprised to learn how many Americans don't think the UK is a "free" society nor do they believe it ever has been.

When it comes to political change, the UK has never really been much of a catalyst or a barometer for potential changes in the US. Pop arts, yes. Politics, no.