I'm singing in the rain... just singing in the rain...

[muse0fire]

We joke about disturbing news being the sign of the decline of civilization, but articles like this really do suggest to me a sadly backward swinging pendulum.

That, and Anthony Burgess was sadly prescient about a bit of the old ultra-violence:
"...There was nothing I hated more than to see a filthy old drunkie, a-howling away at the filthy songs

Comments

Burgess' Prescience

[baldsug]

Not sure if you're aware but we did a stage adaptation of Clockwork Orange a few years back. About a month before we went into production a girl in Cobb County was gang raped by a group of total strangers in her apartment complex. Men who were walking by joined in. It was horrific.

When we staged the show, one of the main concerns was that we personalize the "ultra-violence" and remove the distance of film so that it was happening just a few feet in front of you, and it wasn't ludicrous british droogs with bizarre costumes, but rather 4 guys in jeans and hoodies. The audience had to rethink wat they were cheering on and made to feel accomplices in the violence they were witnessing. Even Burgess himself, when writing the novel, placed it in a distancing world of fiction, but the shit happens for real and it always has. At the turn of the century there were even more homeless and destitute out there, and you'd better believe thet were beaten, abused and murdered. The main difference now is that we're keeping track. These kids need to be tried as adults and locked the hell away.

Re: Burgess' Prescience

[muse0fire]

I wasn't aware, but from everything I've heard about your company, I wish I'd seen it - sounds poignant and disturbing.

These kids need to be tried as adults and locked the hell away.

Normally I would argue that kids under 17 should NEVER be tried as an adult, because their brains just don't function the way an adult's brain does, and I'd rather try to rehab them while they're young, and hopefully set them on a better path.... but in cases of cold, cruel violence like this I'm starting to change my mind.

Re: Burgess' Prescience

[baldsug]

I'd tend to agree with you, not normally being so draconian but I do believe that there are certain inviolate rules and once you've crossed them, whether deliberately or by accident, those rules can no longer be enforced upon you by the rest of society. So those transgressors can no longer be allowed to continue as part of that society for the welfare of all concerned. I say that knowing full well that a day may come when I'll regret saying it, but it's how I feel right now.