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There are three main lines of comments I take issue with:
1. OMG, those people are so TERRIBLE, even ANIMALS do not live like THAT, drawing all over EVERYTHING!!!
To this I say no, that's because animals don't have opposable thumbs. Instead, they just pee places and hope that works.
Graffiti, by contrast, seems to be the default state of a huge portion of humanity. We've found it in the ruins of Pompeii, Independence Rock (as I learned from playing Oregon Trail) is covered with the stuff, some of the earliest cave paintings are just handprints all over the wall. There is at least one language we only know of because of graffiti.
Seems to me that one of the first things people did when they learned about symbolic thought was give up on that pissing everywhere thing and start scribbling everywhere instead.
2. OMG, if THIS is what NYC is like, I will NEVER go there!!!!
Thanks, we don't want you. Also, read on....
3. OMG, this is the REAL NYC, I hate the way it is now!!!
I don't particularly want you either. I've never quite understood people who are nostalgic for New York in the 70s and 80s. It's like wanting to live back in the Depression or something. The murder rate alone makes me happy to be now instead of then. And wanting seedy Times Square back? Dude, that just means you had to go out in public to get your porn! Wouldn't you rather download it like a civilized individual?
1. OMG, those people are so TERRIBLE, even ANIMALS do not live like THAT, drawing all over EVERYTHING!!!
To this I say no, that's because animals don't have opposable thumbs. Instead, they just pee places and hope that works.
Graffiti, by contrast, seems to be the default state of a huge portion of humanity. We've found it in the ruins of Pompeii, Independence Rock (as I learned from playing Oregon Trail) is covered with the stuff, some of the earliest cave paintings are just handprints all over the wall. There is at least one language we only know of because of graffiti.
Seems to me that one of the first things people did when they learned about symbolic thought was give up on that pissing everywhere thing and start scribbling everywhere instead.
2. OMG, if THIS is what NYC is like, I will NEVER go there!!!!
Thanks, we don't want you. Also, read on....
3. OMG, this is the REAL NYC, I hate the way it is now!!!
I don't particularly want you either. I've never quite understood people who are nostalgic for New York in the 70s and 80s. It's like wanting to live back in the Depression or something. The murder rate alone makes me happy to be now instead of then. And wanting seedy Times Square back? Dude, that just means you had to go out in public to get your porn! Wouldn't you rather download it like a civilized individual?
