So I watched “Trainspotting” yesterday. It was a good movie, but I would have done just fine without having seen it. Fucking depressing that, eh? Of course, if it is true to life, or even pretty true to life, that’s depressing to. No wonder people are rioting in England. Had you not heard about this? Apparently it’s been going on for a day or two now. Tearing up London like some LA cops just got acquitted or something.
Sorry, too soon for a Rodney King joke? Not any funnier than when the dude Tommy dies in “Trainspotting” is it? Oh, sorry for the spoiler. Still, I don’t think it is a far leap to go from South Central Los Angeles to Brixton. Living in public housing projects (or “estates” if you are in England), getting harassed for not having a job but having no prospects for getting one. That’ll put a person on edge no doubt. A little excessive force on the part of the police and boom.
So I suppose what I am saying is that domestic tranquility is not really achievable through superior firepower. We tried that down south, and it didn’t really work out. It is easier to sleep at night without a gun in the bed. I think. I’ve never slept with a gun. Except a BB gun when I was 12 or 13, but that doesn’t really count, does it? But as long as our economic policies produce a defacto segregation between rich and poor (where the chasm continues to grow), we will always have to be on watch for the next social upheaval.