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stella41b -> RE: Yob culture. (1/20/2008 1:01:23 PM)
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I'm sorry, but when you look at British culture at the moment, what do you really expect?
What is British culture? Big Brother? Coronation Street and Eastenders?
It can't be popular music. I honestly can't tell the difference between a modern pop song and a ringtone for a mobile phone. And I mean, take a look at our new British music superstars.. I know of a Pete Doherty, can't tell you how he sings, all I know is that he's trying to keep in the knickers of some supermodel and he can't handle his drugs. Then you got Amy Winehouse who also has a problem with the liquor and as we're led to believe drugs.
And these are supposed to be good role models? More than this, people suddenly don't have a clue where this 'yob culture' comes from?
I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from things like education cutbacks, it comes from teenagers not having enough parental contact because both parents have to work late at the office, it comes from communities being destroyed and this preoccupation with image and fitting in. The causes of this 'yob culture' have been building up over many years and people have been sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that it doesn't exist or that it's got nothing to do with them. Same old situation, parents blame teachers, teachers blame parents, and everyone blames the government. This is nothing new. It's been happening ever since Elvis Presley made rock and roll popular in the late 1950's. It's always far far easier to blame someone else than get together and collectively face the issues.
So okay, yes, we can impose curfews, restrictions over drinking, give out ASBO's, but bear in mind that if this is what you want then you're basically asking for a totalitarian, police state, and this is exactly what half of Europe spent 60 years fighting against and is also a major reason why the Second World War happened.
I'm sorry, but I feel very strongly about this. Not long back I got accused of 'living off taxpayers' money' through funding where it was suggested I get a proper job. But you know, you can't have it both ways. And it's precisely people like me who take the taxpayer's money and funding and use it to fight 'yob culture' by giving these yobs something to occupy their time and their lives with, a platform from which they can speak out and teach them things like self-respect.
If you deny young people the right to express themselves and to create their own culture and communities then they get disillusioned and start behaving negatively towards society, and this is why you have yob culture. So what are you going to do? Clamp down on these people?
Wakey wakey people, it's not just young people into all this, but a lot of adults too. If you were to throw everybody who according to the media were being yobs this country would collapse because half the population would be in jail.
I've even got people telling me 'it's just part of the culture'. Well I'm sorry, it's not part of my culture. I just not long back got rid of an administrator from my theatre because she couldn't handle her drink and drugs - I refuse to share my experience or artistic work with anyone who abuses alcohol or drugs or who behaves anti-socially.
It's the same old argument - you either pay taxes and live in a decent, civilized society or you don't and you face the consequences. Some people don't know they're born in this country. Take healthcare for instance. If you're ill you just go to a doctor and get treatment, thanks to the NHS. I'm prepared to bet that there's a lot of Americans who'd love to have a system like our NHS in the States rather than what they have and their issues with medical insurance companies.
Incidentally I now have a theatre, we're starting performances on February 28th at 8pm in Battersea Park - and guess what - no funding, this has all come out of nothing. Anyone is welcome to come along as long as they're not yobs - and I mean this - therefore I'm backing up my words with actions. This is a project that's going right through London and I'm currently setting up a workshop for the hoodies on Broadwater Farm in Tottenham.
It's nothing particularly brilliant, I'm just using an old, outdated concept known as 'entertainment'. You might actually remember it, stuff like films that everybody had to go see and talk about, TV programmes and concerts that people remember for years,, and musicians who were known for the music they played and the way they sang rather than what they smoked, snorted and drank.
Or if you prefer you can believe everything you read in the tabloid press and continue to support totalitarianism and the development of a police state. Go vote for the politicians who will clamp down on this 'yob culture' - work out for yourselves the difference between drinking and abusing alcohol - but please don't start whining when the authorities start clamping down on 'violent pornography' (someone holding a riding crop in their underwear) and with it the whole BDSM community. In fact, maybe better to stop and think long and hard about all this and work out whether you're actually fighting 'yob culture' or actively stereotyping and labelling other people and spoiling their fun.
I don't care, I'm only passing through anyway and am working with people so that this project continues after I'm gone. I've given up wasting my hreath trying to reason with people who believe everything the media tells them and who refuse to see the reality of what's actually going on around them.
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