A couple weeks back a friend of mine got me high and made me watch Robocop.
It was my first time seeing the whole thing in one sitting. Being you know, high and all, I ruminated long and hard on certain mundane parts of the movie, perhaps giving them more scrutiny than had ever been applied to them before. Principal among such mundane parts was an over-looked aspect of the riot scene. You know the scene:
Everybody in town is going crazy because the cops just went on strike. The looters are looting, windows are getting smashed and its basically a big free-for-all. Funnily enough, the establishing shot for this scene pans to Emil, one of the antagonists…
People I have spoken with regarding the necessity of laws tend to view them as necessary safeguards against anarchy; basically if we didn’t have them man’s true beastly nature would no longer be kept at bay and he would be brutish and base.
But does Emil look particularly base and brutish in these pics? No. In fact it looks like anarchy has been kicking his ass. In fact it is only when Red Foreman shows up with fancy new asploeding guns that he gets re-invigorated.
We’ve already built a society** once. If this one collapsed I’m fairly sure we could do it again, but better.
Stay Thirsty,
-Andre Guantanamo
*Its interesting to think that we might falter without laws simply because our society, although ostensibly founded on good faith and fellowship, actually reinforces individualism and competition. Our laws ironically afford us a measure of protection from the violence which our society actually reinforces.
**The Egyptologist John Anthony West criticized our society as not civilization but “shiny barbarism.” Its an interesting point and worth some contemplation.
Write-Errantry 