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Greetings from a member of one very small minority lurking at the edges of The Global Village. I'm speaking of me, part of the community of people who have no opinion about the Royal Wedding that was executed and consummated on 29 April 2011 in Merrie Olde England. I can cook up nothing whatsoever to say about it, even knowing that civilization has been waiting for me to weigh in on the topic. I do apologize, and thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.As an indirect comment, though, I do express hope that Marginalia and his clan thoroughly enjoyed the day, whether sentimentally preoccupied with the majesty of the event, or festively stumbling through a series of pubs with or without the wedding in mind, or acting out bawdy parodies of certain events likely to have happened in the royal wedding chamber at the end of the day.
Meanwhile, here in that Shining City Upon A Hill, what thinks it don't need no royalty stuff because some guys dumped tea into a harbor one time, operatives for America's corporate pride and joy---Facebook, Inc.---helped the British Establishment to celebrate Wedding Day by eradicating 50 protest groups from their special cloud (via BoingBoing). Here's the damage:
Open Birkbeck, UWE Occupation, Chesterfield Stopthecuts, Camberwell AntiCuts, IVA Womensrevolution, Tower Hamlets Greens, No Cuts, ArtsAgainst Cuts, London Student Assembly, Beat'n Streets, Roscoe 'Manchester' Occupation, Bristol Bookfair, Newcastle Occupation, Socialist Unity, Whospeaks Forus, Ourland FreeLand, Bristol Ukuncut, Teampalestina Shaf, Notts-Uncut Part-of UKUncut, No Quarter Cutthewar, Bootle Labour, Claimants Fightback, Ecosocialists Unite, Comrade George Orwell, Jason Derrick, Anarchista Rebellionist, BigSociety Leeds, Slade Occupation, Anti-Cuts Across Wigan, Firstof Mayband, Don't Break Britain United, Cockneyreject, SWP Cork, Westiminster Trades Council, York Anarchists, Rock War, Sheffield Occupation, Central London SWP, North London Solidarity, Southwark Sos, Save NHS, Rochdale Law Centre, Goldsmiths Fights BackMark Zuckerberg is American royalty, by the way, or at least he must think he is.
facebook is a piece of fruit set out for the Eloi to enjoy while awaiting their fate at the paws of the Morlocks.
ReplyDeletebeyond that I've got no opinion about it
There will always have been an Albion.
ReplyDeleteThe Eternally Renewing Druid of Osiris
Without a Speakers Corner somewhere the pressure can accumulate and blow. And, by the way, it's a great way to ID the nuts in the red zone who might actually act out.
ReplyDelete(a reformed) Emma Goldman
Greetings from the kingdom of Far Far Away.
ReplyDeleteOur Establishment (bit like yours but they wear trousers not pants) were concerned that some of the working classes might try to spoil the couple's great day by gate crashing the party.
According to news reports a number of protesters identified at political protests earlier in the year were visited by our Special Branch and told they wouldn't be welcome at the royal bash.
Good to see some of your commentators are steeped in the English Edwardian Sci-Fi genre.
Oil Can: better get your Weena away from that fruit!
ReplyDeleteAnon 1: if you know of a connection between the Druids and Osiris I must know of it at once. Perhaps there is a direct lineage through Hermes Trismegistus.
Anon 2: I think "they" are less worried about nuts in the red zone than hordes of The Unwashed showing up at polling places with voter ID cards and long-form birth certificates.
Marginalia: yes, security is a legitimate concern for a state ceremony, and an appropriate "quiet zone" with a secure perimeter is certainly fitting. I'm not sure how that purpose was advanced by Facebook deleting "Bristol Bookfair" or "Tower Hamlets Greens." That said, I think "free assembly" on the internet is overrated, and political action is primarily a meatspace undertaking.
Marginalia: adding that the 1960 version of The Time Machine, directed by George Pal, is responsible for a certain subconscious, deeply visceral element of my adult worldview. Turns out that it's a perfect fable for the devolution of the American body politic. Wells is on my list of authors to actually read in addition to enjoying on the screen. But not before I revisit some Orwell essays, which are even more directly explanatory of the American Experiment gone awry.
ReplyDelete