Next generation has apocalypse written all over it

[aftanas]

I see articles like this and I can't determine whether the author is being humorously ironic or shamelessly bigoted.

Theodore Dalrymple The Australian March 17, 2014

THE end is nigh! French civilisation is on the verge of collapse! No one who attended the recent Mondial du Tatouage (the World Tattoo Fair) in Paris could be in any doubt about it.

It was held, appropriately enough, in the old abattoir at the end of the Avenue Jean Jaurès, named after the highly civilised French socialist politician who was assassinated 100 years ago this year. The elegant Victorian wrought-iron construction of the old abattoir is now surrounded by a wasteland of concrete monstrosities, French modern architecture now being some of the worst in the world.

It would be bad enough anywhere, but is especially painful in a country with a millennial history of architectural achievement. Perhaps the rejection of beauty as a goal by French architects — their work seeming rather to exclaim “F..k off, humanity!” — accounts in part for the adoption as a style by so many of the young French of deliberate ugliness and self-mutilation. In a world of brutal ugliness over which you have no control you might as well admit defeat and join in.

Thousands queued to enter the fair at €30 ($46) a ticket. Many of them had already permanently disfigured themselves and, since their tattoos would have quite likely cost hundreds or thousands of euros, poverty was not the explanation for their degradation.

Inside the abattoir, there were about 250 stands from across the Western world offering tattoos, many of them with more than one “artist”. It was only to be expected that ugly loud tuneless rock music of the kind that makes thought impossible and speech difficult was poured into the atmosphere like poison gas. Customers lay down on couches to have dragons, skulls, vampires, insects, rats or Elvis Presley permanently inscribed on their legs, backs, arms, chests.

One man held a baby in his arms as a tattooist inscribed a snake on his back. You are never too young to be indoctrinated with nihilism. A little boy of four wore a T-shirt with the slogan “I love my Tattoo [sic] parents’’ and was photographed by admiring photographers, most themselves heavily tattooed.

Two nearly naked middle-aged men of flabby physique, tattooed so heavily that only a few years ago they would have been considered degenerate freaks, patted small children on the head as their delighted parents proudly took photographs of them: something to remember and look back proudly on, then.

By coincidence, the first stand by which I stopped was Australian: Khan Tattoos of the Gold Coast in Queensland. Khan, of South Korean origin, was himself heavily tattooed and had had the words ‘‘My name is Khan and I do tattoos’’ inscribed on the back of his head and neck. This is typical of the wilful idiocy of tattooed slogans: another, on the front of a young woman’s upper thigh and knee, read ‘‘We are like roses that have never bothered to bloom when we should have bloomed and it is as if the sun has become disgusted with waiting.’’ By comparison with this, the slogans painted on the sides of Nigerian buses — ‘‘No condition is permanent’’, ‘‘Let them say’’ — are miracles of philosophical depth and compression: and removable into the bargain.

The aesthetic of tattooing, if that is not too generous a word for it, is predominantly that of criminals in prison who take to drawing, which is not entirely a coincidence because the fashion for tattoos spread from prison. Some of the names of the tattooists’ enterprises were revealing: Evil from the Needle, Clod the Ripper, Perfect Chaos, Black Heart, La Boucherie Moderne (Modern Butcher), and La Cour des Miracles.

The latter was an area of Paris in which tramps, beggars, cripples and criminals gathered; the miracles were the recovery by beggars on their return to the Cour from the falsely-assumed illnesses and injuries that they adopted when begging. The identification of the tattooed with tramps, beggars, cripples and criminals is not a desire to help them or reduce their suffering, but purely romantic; a desire to be in opposition to society without paying the price for it.

In the last analysis, the Mondial du Tatouage was sad and even tragic. A competition was held for the most ‘‘beautiful’’ tattoo of the day (one of the judges, a heavily tattooed man of about 50, had a label saying “F. . k off” sewn on his leather jerkin), and a succession of young victims of their own execrable taste paraded themselves, without dignity or self-respect, in the hope of a moment’s fame and a photograph in one of the many magazines devoted to tattoos and tattooing. All this in sight of a large poster saying ‘‘Unleash your potential’’. (English is the international language of stupidity as well as of science.)

Foolishness and bad taste have always existed, of course, but rarely have they spread so rapidly. Ten years ago there were 400 professional tattooists in France; now there are 4000. In England, where so much of the worst of modern culture originated, more than a third of young adults are tattooed. Civilisations collapse from within.

[polocross58]

Quote Lakeland:  ' i  know you'd have no hope of identifying the majority of offenders. those who are identified are overwhelmingly already in prisons. why waste any energy on such a silly proposal merely because it makes you feel better ? it serves no useful purpose.'

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Lakeland,  you know nothing of the sort

Then you contradict yourself within the space of two posts by claiming,  ' the majority of offenders are already in prisons'  when minutes before you referred to all the unidentified offenders (family, friends of family, etc) who're out there right now in society

It is my belief that indelible identification of such offenders, such as tattooes across the forehead proclaimiing their offences, would serve a very useful purpose ----------------- i.e. it would tell the public who the offenders are and where danger lies.  Thus, the public could actively avoid those sources of distnct danger

It is to protect the public from dangerous offenders that prisons exist

Are you also claimiing that prisons 'serve no useful purpose' ?

[lakeland27]

selective.

[polocross58]

Seems you have no worthwhile response

[lakeland27]

''those who are identified''  tattooed to appease the mob whilst the majority continue.  thinking up further punishment for those already incarcerated for their crimes does nothing to address the majority of offenders who are at large and undetected.  if you can think of or suggest a real solution other than a dunce cap i might take you seriously.

[polocross58]

Quoting Lakeland: ' ''those who are identified''  tattooed to appease the mob whilst the majority continue.  thinking up further punishment for those already incarcerated for their crimes does nothing to address the majority of offenders who are at large and undetected.  if you can think of or suggest a real solution other than a dunce cap i might take you seriously.'

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Typical of those determined to disrupt is that they immediately begin to carp about 'mobs' whenever they're unable to provide viable backing to their earlier comments

Mobs ?

Goodness me.  Next minute Hitler will be dragged into it as usual

Lakeland, as your previous posts show, you have already provided tacit admission that society harbours innumerable unidentified offenders -- and here we're speaking of violent offences such as child sexual offences, sexual offences generally and acts of violence, just so that's clear

Within my own comment re: tattoos, I mentioned the 'mobs' currently wailing on behalf of paedophiles' 'rights'.  The 'mobs' in question are concerned, apparently, about paedophiles being readily identified by the public via sexual offenders registers

I also mentioned that in earlier days, according to reports, offenders were branded -- similar to tattoos.  Societies in earlier eras wanted to know who they and their children, families and friends would be well to avoid.  Visible tattoos branded on offenders meant they were ostracised by decent society.  It was up to the offenders' families to support them -- or not.  Otherwise those offenders were forced to hide in forests and live off the land until they died.  Considering what their victims were compelled to endure, it seems only just that offenders suffered for their crimes

At the same time, today, I said in my initial post, certain sectors of society willingly have their one and only skin permanently disfigured via tattoos

From there to here

And immediately you sought justification for your comments by introducing 'mobs'

I'm going to exit further discourse with you, Lakeland, because I don't have time to waste on those who make completely unvalidated claims, such as 'most offenders have been identified and are in prison' --- at the same time you claim unidentified offenders are out there and active right now

When you work out what you mean and prove your ability to compose a comprehensible argument (rather than argument for argument's sake) I might be prepared to re-enter the discussion

Having said that -- which is a frank and honest assessment of your commentary

I should add that if you and your clique report my posts as you usually do (having provoked it to begin with)

and if the questionable mods impose some 'punishment'  (the aim of most of the comments you direct to me)

then I will continue to NOT BUY from ebay

And for those who enjoy 'biffs' (having done all in their power to provoke same)

consider this:

People pay good money to list their items on ebay

Those who've been subjected to provocation on the ebay boards and who've been unfairly 'reported' by the gang and set upon by the 'mods' (which of you is a mod, by the way?)   will not spend money on ebay

Thus, the public who in good faith have paid money to ebay to list

are losing money as direct result of the ebay boards and its mods

I can see a successful class-action resulting

after which, ebay will need either to eliminate the boards completely

or pay for accountable 'mods'

Either way, people are already losing money as direct result of what goes on in the ebay boards (and I screenshot frequently)

It's my suspicion that most provocateurs on the ebay boards do not sell or buy.  They simply hang around the boards because they have nowhere else to go yet have to endlessly vent their spleens on someone.    In which case, those provocateurs are costing ebay sellers a lot of money at the same time they're putting ebay directly in the litigation firing-line

Ciao

[freakiness]

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@polocross58 wrote:

Quoting Lakeland: ' ''those who are identified''  tattooed to appease the mob whilst the majority continue.  thinking up further punishment for those already incarcerated for their crimes does nothing to address the majority of offenders who are at large and undetected.  if you can think of or suggest a real solution other than a dunce cap i might take you seriously.'

------------------------

Typical of those determined to disrupt is that they immediately begin to carp about 'mobs' whenever they're unable to provide viable backing to their earlier comments

Mobs ?

Goodness me.  Next minute Hitler will be dragged into it as usual

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Note: you did just drag Hitler into it for some unknown reason.

Now let me get this straight. You have no objection to you using the word mob for one group of people but take exception to another poster using the very same word to describe another group of people.   No doubt some of one mob would be posing as one of the other mob to keept he heat of themselves.

Is that a new form of double standard?

[lakeland27]

as i said, offer a solution . tattoos on those we already know of is like washing the car twice just to make sure. it adds no value to the argument , it simply makes you feel better. as for the rest of the post i simply find it  odd.

[lloydslights]

Is this off topic.

Consider, if Daniel Morecomb's killer had had a tattoo on his forehead following gaol time for the former assault on that 7 year old boy, perhaps his latest offence would not have happened.

DEB

[icyfroth]

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@lloydslights wrote:

Is this off topic.

Consider, if Daniel Morecomb's killer had had a tattoo on his forehead following gaol time for the former assault on that 7 year old boy, perhaps his latest offence would not have happened.

DEB

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Agree, Deb.

And yes we are way off topic - with apologies to aftanas 🙂

Oh well at least wer'e still talking about tattoos 🙂

[boris1gary]

The article in the op only makes me think of my Nan's generations reaction to my Mothers generation when the evils of rock'n'roll were being written about. A little like the reaction to the Punk scene by the older generation in the 70's  -

Their 1977 single "God Save the Queen," attacking social conformity and deference to the Crown, precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium"

The people who are written about in the fluff piece will one day be the older generation and some of them may even express such silly and over dramatic views or "humorously ironic" views about their younger generation.