Thursday, March 26, 2009

Fred Goodwin and Situationism

The most surprising bit about the attack at the banker's home was the public reaction.

The attack on former RBS boss Fred Goodwin's home in Edinburgh may be a one-off or it could even mark a watershed in the current downturn. If there is something history taught us is that deep economic slumps often turn a more confrontational leaf.

An anonymous group issued a statement, claiming it was behind the attack: "We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning".

That may have surprised some, but nowhere near as much as the reaction of most Sun readers. A look at the tabloid's comment page suggests that the old Angry Brigade, an anarchist situationist group who carried out a spate of similar attacks in the early 70s, were simply thirty-five years too early. If it's true that The Sun hold the national pulse, then it appears that the national pulse have finally caught up with the Angry Brigade.

Just look at some of the comments from the Sun's page: "Nice to read good news for a change"; "Well, what a shame!"; "Fred you brought it all on yourself..."; "no worry got loads off money to get new widows" [presumably meaning 'windows' here- ed]; "one word: KARMA" and, the most upfront: "This could be just the start. Peoples own justice will be handed out to those who have robbed us. Next time it could be something more damaging. Others should be worrying".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Has there been a "libertarian" reaction? I'd love to see them going on about how banker scum are really great and don't deserve punishment. They really don't understand that their worldview is discredited and obsolete.