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Tuesday 1 May 2012

zuallererst

Ten years ago today, my first flatmate said it might be a good idea to stay in off the streets. Yesterday, a former Friedrichshainer told me of her belief that May Day vandals, many of them tourists, knew little about the origin of the holiday and, in the process, dimwittingly revealed how little she knew about the origin of the holiday. Both the former flatmate and the former fellow Friedrichshainer have moved to the 'burbs; waiting for the walk signal and having to look both ways before you cross the street can be taxing.

There're several ways to confront the bi-dentity of today's participants: International Worker demon or parkBQer? Marcher or watcher? Protester or reveler? LOLotov 'tail-tosser or stone-cold copper? Trouble maker or agent provoker?

Breaking things into pairs reveals fractions of the whole; it doesn't tell us why bottles fly, or others's die.
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The charter says you may gather peacefully, which makes work easier for those who have the might to seek and destroy. And there's not much need to fight the power when you have a decent chance of escaping this life unscathed. If you just stay in, your safety is almost guaranteed. All evidence would indicate that this is the abeyant assessment of the majority, and - while a minority bad-attitude seems to be advancing, even in the land with a Labor Day far removed from Haymarket Mayhem - it doesn't seem likely that most'll ever identify pushing back locally as anything but causing unwanted trouble.

Above all, fulfilling this perverse sense of order, the largess class of "folks" are more than passively willing to demonstrate solidarity with their preferred wing of the warrior class.