As The Great Recession tightens its grip on the urban slums of the U.S. and Europe, a darker side of social networking has begun to emerge. Last week, the civilized world was appalled to read about rioting British “youths” tweeting their friends and comrades-in-arms to join the fun. “We need more MAN than Feds so Everyone run wild, all of London and others are invited! Pure terror and havoc & Free stuff…just smash shop windows and cart out da stuff.” Ahh, “da stuff!” Such swag as has seldom been seen in London’s dismal rookeries: bowler hats from Locke. Brigg umbrellas. Church shoes. London’s bobbies should have no trouble picking out the perpetrators on Monday. They’ll be wearing bespoke suits that fit as poorly as O.J.’s infamous glove. Yobs will be firing up Cohibas with (unmonogrammed) Dunhill lighters, broad-tossers’ wrists will be adorned with Patek Phillipes, and louts will be ordering up Dom Perignon by the flagon in Piccadilly taverns.
All of this may sound vaguely familiar to Americans who endured the urban riots of the 1960s, decades before social networking was even imaginable. Back then, FM radio was the medium best suited to celebrating the spoils of rioting. And celebrate it they did: “Good morning!! boomed WUST disk jockey “Moon Man” the day after Washington D.C. erupted in flames in response to Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968. “How are all of you Boss Jocks out there with new color TVs and radios?!! he asked, addressing and audience that must have included at least some listeners who had thrown bricks through store windows and crated off stolen appliances the previous day. Riots were ostensibly “political” back then, and a news media that was only beginning to incubate White Guilt made all of those who watched the violence from their living rooms complicit in the theft and destruction. Now, we shudder to think that the toll of riots yet to come, fueled by tweets and e-mails as they are certain to be, will make us nostalgic for the tactically uncoordinated urban violence of the 1960s.
The ‘Flash Rob’
Just as frightening is the speed at which social networking has become weaponized. A mere month ago, we were charmed by the possibilities of the so-called flash mob, where large groups of strangers are organized via social networking services or e-mail to show up at the same time and place for mass public performances and pranks. A TV commercial currently airing in prime time spoofs a guy who makes a fool of himself by stripping and dancing maniacally in Grand Central Station, only to learn that the flash mob to which he’d been summoned had been rescheduled for 30 minutes later. And in the hit movie of the summer, Friends With Benefits, two flash mob stunts that also take place in Grand Central Station enable a hip Twenty-Something couple to find true love. Contrast that with the latest mutation of the flash mob, the “flash rob,” where “youths” meandering through the aisles of a store suddenly grab items from the shelves and run for it, overwhelming employees and security. Like their London cohort, the “youths” are not motivated, even ostensibly, by political concerns, but by the sheer thrill and ease of acquiring merchandise they have not paid for.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” an iconic track from a 1970 record album that glorified the Black Panthers, was only half-right. In fact, the revolution — or, to put it more plainly, the riots that seem likely to spread as economic hard times deepen – will have been tweeted, Facebooked, e-mailed and even Photoshopped before the TV cameras arrive.
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In any organized system, entropy must always increase over time.
Currency is only “current” otherwise it would be called “permanency”.
This too, shall pass…