Immaturity, Innocence & Experience

It is very easy to get even with someone. Paramore's 'Misery Business' is moulded around the hopes of oppressed young people that justice will be served to their tormenters - that they will get even.

And getting even feels good. That's where the problem lies.

Getting even, getting square and getting vengeance are fleeting outcomes. Those moments will fade leaving behind rushes of adrenaline and roots untempered.

Simon Pegg's Tim Bisley in 'Spaced' put it best:

'Life just isn't like the movies, is it? We're constantly led to believe in resolution, in the re-establishment of the ideal status quo and it's just not true'

And life isn't like the movies because, as Dr Manhattan explains in his parting shot to Ozymandias in Alan Moore's 'Watchmen':

'Nothing ever ends'

'Misery Business' perfectly captures the temporary high of an eye for an eye. But there is sadness to be found in such cathartic acts. It would be easy to suggest that the tragedy of catharsis was simply lost on Paramore because of their youth. But the Tories are only too happy to prove that theory wrong.

Following the England riots, Tories have been quick to play down 'phoney human rights' considerations (Watt et al, 2011); they have been quick to use it to push their anti-gang rhetoric (Telegraph, 2011) and they have been quick to call for force to be met with 'greater force' (Davies, 2011).

It is mature but naïve innocence to acknowledge how empowering catharsis can feel; but the wisdom of hard earned experience lies in the acknowledgement of its temporary nature. The catharsis of lashing out is ultimately unsatisfying.

We must reject reactionary conservative doctrine of meeting force with greater force; before we are trapped by an inevitable escalation, taking an eye for an eye until no one can see.

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References:
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+ Nicholas Watt, Sandra Laville & Vikram Dodd's 'Tories on riot policing: too few, too slow, too timid'; in The Guardian, 11 August 2011;

+ The Telegraph's 'England riots: David Cameron declares war on gangs'; 15 August 2011;

+ David Davies, MP for Monmouth, in the 'Public Disorder debate' in the House of Commons; 11 August 2011;