(hackney, east london)
Everytime I pass this slogan it inevitably provokes a huge swirling conversation in my head. So, at last, I've photographed it (is "photoed" a word yet?), and now I can write some accompanying text in an attempt to record the varying issues and associations raised by this graffiti, and then I'll never have to think about it ever again.
To begin with I always find myself saying "bless" whenever I see it. It is such a classic slice of naive off-the-peg romanticism, which nonetheless is a million times preferable to mere tagging. What are tags, other than public arse-wipings from the cult of "individuality". I am individual, hear me DRAW. Tags remind me of all those reality tv inmates who persistently recite that delusional mantra "I'm just me".
But naive off-the-peg romanticism and sloganeering is often equally vacuous. Too often it functions as a vent. Its too often a matter of looking at the finger thats pointing rather than what the finger is pointing at. It comes as part of a ready made identity package for (predominantly) young people to slip into, and then to discard with ease once they become fully amalgamated into the state. (I haven't articulated this clearly. I'll have to come back to it)
Next, I always want to add a prefix to this scrawl. "EDUCATE THE MASSES AND THEN smash the state".
Another prominent association in my mind is that naive cliche of a working class revolution. The bizarre assumption that a majority of working class people in this country might be revolutionary in spirit. Sadly the majority of working class opinions that I've experienced during my 46 years of life have tended to be right-wing, reactionary, patriotic, pro-authority and hyper-capitalist etc etc. And of course there actually was a working class revolution in britain back in the 80s, it was called Thatcherism. Its equally ironic that the most frequent manifestation of revolutionary class war ends up being educated middle class "anarchists" versus uneducated working class police.
Finally (for now) I always come back to the phrase "IDEAS ARE ALSO WEAPONS" which in this context is best summed up in this excerpt from Voluntary Resistance (By Carl Watner) "Public buildings may be destroyed, public officials murdered, but such efforts will never bring about the destruction of the idea of the State. The State is a state of mind, an idea which cannot be harmed by violence. Ideas can only be attacked with better ideas." And we desperately need to use our public spaces to communicate such ideas.
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