Posts by Stephen Judd
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Alfie,
but virtually every concert or festival I've attended has been as part of a group,
So -- these things didn't happen when you were around. That speaks really well of your contribution to the group, but it doesn't mean they weren't happening where you weren't paying attention.
My suggestion: take contrary accounts as adding to your view of the world rather than contradicting it.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to James Dunne,
more mightn't be done to encourage men to back up their friends when they're intervening.
Yeah, back up is pretty crucial. I guess I should cop to contributing to that theme of whether and how the onus is on men to step up, and it's based partly on the personal experience of being punched in the nose so hard I found myself on the ground wondering what happened. In hindsight, I've had most success being the voice of reason backed by friends, and least as a lone, outraged vigilante. I'd want to practice saying to strangers "we should do something about this, back me up".
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I think we have to listen to women who tell us it has always been like this. Us middle aged dudes aren't witnessing a moral decline, we're experiencing the truth sinking in.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Russell Brown,
What else do you suggest they do? Sincere question, not snark.
I'm not sure what I'd propose when put on the spot. But if you got a bunch of women who are into that scene and worked with them to find things to tweak/add/subtract,, I bet that would be useful.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Russell Brown,
So there's part of a solution right there.
I wasn't there, so I don't know how visible and proactive security were, but when people get visibly slung out for being antisocial, it sends a message.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to B Jones,
I wonder, though, whether it's a change in behaviour we're seeing, or a change in its visibility and acceptance.
I have a not even half baked idea that reality television and the enormous yet narrow peer group supplied by the internet is contributing to a feeling that one is an actor, performing, that the situation is somehow unreal, and that the (even if horrified) attention of others justifies whatever you do. For the lulz. But maybe I'm just getting old.
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I think demographic, security, cultural cues, lots of subtle stuff, contribute to crowd behaviour. If promoters made "how can we make this event a great experience for women" their guiding principle, I reckon they could do a lot. As a happy side-effect, such an atmosphere would be good for most men too.
While I agree that men should deal with men's shit before women, sometimes confronting offenders leads to more violence. That is a big reason why you don't see it happening in practice. Men's violence intimidates other men too. Institutional problems deserve an institutional response.
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Speaker: What Star Wars can teach us…, in reply to B Jones,
A ragtag band of rebels fighting against The Man
Counter: we're defending a vulnerable civilisation against barbarian incursions from people who want to destroy us.
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Hard News: Footpaths, not manifest destiny, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Damn, does that make it a compound error?
Not surprising in a comment on transition mettle.
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Because I blew all my leave a few weeks ago on an overseas trip, I won't be going away, but I do plan to spend my time tending the vege garden, stoking the barbecue, riding bikes, and taking shit to the dump, as conditions permit.