Life: A tragic comedy, or a comic tragedy?

[denny]

Whilst in London this weekend, two things happened that I meant to lj. I always feel very aware that I'm pathetically geeky when that's my first reaction to things, but there it is. And here they are...

Comedy: Tesco have a truly abysmal series of adverts out currently, featuring horribly contrived puns. One of these uses the phrase "from pilau to post" (from pillar to post), and features a picture of some writing paper and envelopes (post) and some rice. Some basmati rice. It's written in big clear letters on the packet. *shakes head in despair*

Tragedy: This was the one that really hit me. duranorak and I were walking through Camden, and we walked past two children as they had stopped at a skip. Their reason for stopping? To pull down a "No war on Iraq" poster. They were literally peeling it off in shreds, ripping it down with their fingernails, and not just for the destructive fun of it - there was a running commentary along the lines of "We're not fuckin' havin' that. Them fuckers deserve it, they need fuckin' bombin' dun't they?", and so on. They were about 12 years old, at a guess - maybe younger.

Looking back on it, I'm torn between weeping at the sheer extent to which the media can warp the perceptions of those too young or stupid to know better, or whether to add this to my list of reasons for intensely disliking large parts of the populace for just generally being fuckwits. At the time though, I really did just sag under the weight of realising how fucked up our world is, when kids have any kind of opinion on the issue of killing thousands of strangers - let alone such a rabidly 'in favour' opinion.

Comments

[zotz]

Children are amazingly (small-c) conservative and often incredibly small-minded. Mock general elections at schools are bizarre events, and aren't particularly likely to go the same way as the constituency. When they hit their late teens they'll maybe start to actually think about the world.