Ansel Adams - Merced River, Cliffs, Autumn

Sirius Glass said:

Graffiti is vandalism plain and simple. If one wants to express their feelings with cans of spray paint then get the owner's permission or find a sponsor. If one is desperate for a canvas just turn the nozzle around and spray the paint on ones own corneas.

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Could not agree more. An "art" course at a local university here actually had a course in making "Graffiti Art". When I called and complained that this was encouraging vandalism, they told me that was nonsense.

I agree with the university. If our society wishes to reduce vandalism in the form of graffiti, first we must look at it as a symptom, not a problem. I see it as a valid mode of expression of the oppressed.

Arthurwg said:

Could not agree more. An "art" course at a local university here actually had a course in making "Graffiti Art". When I called and complained that this was encouraging vandalism, they told me that was nonsense.

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In the third voyage of Gulliver's Travels comes to mind:

First of all Laputa is a play on words: la puta means the whore in Spanish. But I digress the high thinkers on Laputa have slaves with long poles. The poles have leather bags which are heavy because they are filled with sand. Every thirty minutes the slaves swing the pole so that the sand bags hit the face of the high thinker to bring him back to earthly thoughts. So while I taught Computer Architecture in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department of California State University, I often thought that such long poles with sand bags would be quite useful for some of my colleagues.

Or as a wise Orthodox rabbi once said to me, "Just because we have beards does not mean that we are always right."

Oppressed? That's a stretch. Brats, thieves, and vandals come from all kinds of socio-economic levels. Once it becomes cool to do something stupid, everybody does it. I really disliked my fifth grade teacher. So on a Saturday I made a huge cartoon of her on the white abode schoolhouse wall using black walnuts for a nearby tree. I thought they'd just hose it off, and didn't realize how deeply that greenish black walnut husk stain goes. There were no phones in that area yet; but when I saw the school janitor pulling up the driveway the next morning, I knew something was up. He hauled me back to the school and handed me a scrub brush, a bucket of detergent, a paintbrush, and a gallon of white paint. It took me all day; but I sure learned my lesson.

Some is, most is not. The disenfranchising is on-going.

Nearly all of the looting and vandalism epidemic that went on nearly every summer weekend downtown here was primarily either recreational or ideologically anarchistic both directions. Spoiled rich kids, motheaten 60's types now living in million dollar houses, but still wanting their revolution, and just plain troublemakers. They were opportunists who'd show up to take advantage of some protest already underway, or lacking that, start a diversion of their own to keep police busy elsewhere. Twice entire car dealership lots have been looted just for a big joyriding party, once in Ferraris; that was an organized crime group doing it for a holiday adrenaline rush. Boredom might be a big factor at the moment too. Small towns are no different. I heard stories about what went on after hours behind Lone Pine itself, and once heard a lot more than stories. Diverting police for sake of a game occurs in rural scenarios too.